ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -As Charles Crow notes, the grotesque, “is a quality that overlaps with the Gothic, but neither is necessary or sufficient for the other.”21 Characters with physical deformities, so-called freaks, feature heavily in the Southern Grotesque.

Detailed explanation-2: -In literature, the word grotesque carries with it the aesthetics of the sculpted gargoyles and chimeras-it refers to the monstrous, the malformed, the frightening, and the outright strange.

Detailed explanation-3: -In fiction, characters are usually considered grotesque if they induce both empathy and disgust. (A character who inspires disgust alone is simply a villain or a monster.) Obvious examples would include the physically deformed and the mentally deficient, but people with cringe-worthy social traits are also included.

Detailed explanation-4: -isolation and marginalization. violence and crime. sense of place. freakishness and the grotesque. destitution and decay. oppression and discrimination.