ST105 Nature, Body & Transformation

Bakhtin and the grotesque body

The body that eats, rots, grows and overflows, and why it is comic as well as terrible.

About 120 minutes.

Reading for this lesson

  • Required Rabelais and His World Mikhail Bakhtin, translated by Helene Iswolsky the introduction and the chapter on the grotesque image of the body

    Long but rewarding. Read after your first thoughts.

    Library
  • Required Swamp Thing #1: "Dark Genesis" Len Wein (writer), Bernie Wrightson (artist) the whole issue

    For the creature's body.

  • Recommended Swamp Thing #3: "The Patchwork Man" Len Wein (writer), Bernie Wrightson (artist) the whole issue

    For the Patchwork Man beside him.