What's grotesque?

If something is "grotesque", it contradicts the normal world of experience

• The term "grotesque" is used in many contexts and situations. Especially when something cannot be classified directly, deviates from the norm and appears distorted in a certain way.
• The grotesque can sometimes be disturbing and more or less unpleasant, or it can cause unidentifiable discomfort. The familiar is often exaggerated, combined with the incompatible or exaggerated into the ridiculous.
• The degree of the grotesque is arbitrary. Something can easily be weird and eccentric or extremely bizarre or even repulsive. Something can be described as grotesque even if it seems strange and fantastic - in the sense of unbelievable - at the same time.

The grotesque has long been part of art and literature

• However, anyone who now suspects that something that is grotesque cannot entertain and amuse at the same time is mistaken. You may have seen some grotesque work before and just don't know it. Sometimes works by Monty Python are counted as grotesque forms of entertainment. Some of them seem very exaggerated and can therefore offer your viewers a stranger form of comedy.
• Do you know the picture by Francisco de Goya with the title "Saturn eats his children"? This work is an example of a grotesque that takes up mythological themes. The motif has a deeply disturbing effect on some viewers and makes many uncomfortable.


"Absurdity" - an explanation in contrast to the "grotesque"

The terms "absurd" and "grotesque" are not clear in everyday language ...

• But also written works, such as those by Franz Kafka, can be assigned to the world of the grotesque. Or do you find it normal when a man named Gregor Samsa wakes up one day as a bug? This happened in Kafka's "The Metamorphosis".