True Realism and the Poetry of Disorder

The Demonic Function of the Grotesque in Christian Humanism

The Realism of the Grotesque

Since the presence of the grotesque in art and literature is naturally disturbing, aimed to shock, “to jolt the viewer or reader out of his or her habitual way of understanding reality,” one may conceivably wonder why Christian humanists would employ such a literary device. After all, “The grotesque is the poetry of disorder,…