Revisiting the Grotesque Again

In the preface to Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, Edgar Allan Poe simply states, "The epithets 'Grotesque' and 'Arabesque' will be found to indicate with sufficient precision the prevalent tenor of the tales here published" (Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1840). Yet, as we know, Poe's "sufficient precision" has been found to be somewhat elusive. In fact, Poe's source(s) for and definition(s) of the terms "grotesque" and "arabesque" have been, in some ways, equally elusive for Poe scholars, yet understanding and engaging with some of these sources may help us better connect with some of his most significant short stories.The debates surrounding Poe's intended meaning of the terms "grotesque" and "arabesque" are compounded by the question of their literary origins. While some scholars agree with Quinn's assertion that Poe borrowed these terms from Sir Walter Scott's essay "On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition," there is no consensus on this matter (Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1941, 289). Despite claims that Poe was inspired by Scott's ideas on the grotesque, this connection has not been thoroughly investigated, nor have Scott's concepts of the grotesque.In Sir Walter Scott's essay "On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition," he criticizes E. T. A. Hoffman and seemingly derides the supernatural in what he terms "FANTASTIC" German literature:Scott's comments on Hoffman's works underscore what is perhaps one of the most significant differences between Scott and Poe, one that concerns imagination. While Poe heightens, exaggerates, and colors his narratives, Scott derides a fantastic imagination that can only be achieved through the absence of scruples. Scott further criticizes the fantastic imagination when he speaks of Hoffman himself:Scott viewed Hoffman's fantastic imagination as a fault. In fact, so imaginative was Hoffman that Scott suggests he was near insanity.In the passage quoted above, Scott does not separate the grotesque and the arabesque in terms of opposite aesthetics. Instead, he suggests that they are nearly the same thing, with the arabesque referring to the visual arts and the grotesque applied to literature. Many scholars, including Kayser, refer to this passage when suggesting that Scott viewed the grotesque and arabesque as nearly synonymous. Kayser asserts that Poe not only got the aesthetics terms from Scott but also uses them synonymously like Scott:Beverly R. Voloshin disagrees, suggesting that since Scott saw the grotesque as the "literary counterpart to the arabesque in the visual arts" and that because Scott uses the term "grotesque" to deride the supernatural, "his valuation of the terms cannot be precisely that of Poe" ("The Essays and 'Marginalia,'" in A Companion to Poe Studies, ed. Eric W. Carlson Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1996, 283). Both Harry Levin (The Power of Blackness: Hawthorne, Poe, Melville New York: Knopf, 1970, 152) and Burton R. Pollin (Discoveries in Poe Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1970, 15) suggest an alternate source for Poe: the preface to Victor Hugo's Cromwell. Hugo writes, "The grotesque . . . is found everywhere; on the one hand, it creates the abnormal and the horrible, on the other the comic and the burlesque." Hugo caustically criticized classicists for largely ignoring the dark side of human nature: "The real results from the wholly natural combination of two types, the sublime and the grotesque, which meet in the drama, as they meet in life and in creation" ("Preface to Cromwell," in Prefaces and Prologues: To Famous Books, ed. Charles W. Eliot New York: P.F. Collier, 1909, xxxix). Lewis A. Lawson notes both Scott and Hugo as possible sources for Poe, but also a number of others ("Poe and the Grotesque: A Bibliography, 1695–1965," Poe Newsletter 1, no. 1 April 1968: 9–10).Voloshin and others base their arguments that Poe did not borrow the term "grotesque" from Scott primarily on two premises, and both rely on Scott's comments in his Hoffman review. The first is that Scott viewed the literary grotesque as "unnatural, startling, and repugnant," while Poe embraced the grotesque form (Voloshin 283). There are difficulties with this argument. First, let us assume for the moment, as Voloshin and others have done, that Scott did indeed have a low opinion of the grotesque, as his Hoffman criticism certainly seems to suggest. Scott's criticism of Hoffman's overwrought imagination and his derision of the grotesque in that review do not necessarily suggest that Scott's idea of the term was different than Poe's. Just because Poe embraced the grotesque in his own works does not necessarily mean that he did not view the grotesque the same as Scott. As pointed out earlier, there is a fundamental difference between Scott and Poe in terms of imagination. We return to the idea here of Scott's contention that only an author who lacks scruples can properly work out the fantastic. Indeed, Poe felt little moral or ethical obligation that would prevent him from employing the grotesque. Even if one is to concede that Scott detested the grotesque literary aesthetic, this does not necessarily mean that Scott and Poe valued the term differently.But there is another fundamental problem with Voloshin's argument in that it bases Scott's negative valuation of the grotesque solely on his review of Hoffman. Though it seems clear in that particular work that Scott did indeed have some reservations about the use of the supernatural and the grotesque in fiction writing, we should not assume, based on this one example, that Scott had an absolute disdain for the grotesque. In fact, there seems to be some confusion surrounding what Scott meant by grotesque. If Scott's condemnation of a grotesque German fantastic literature is to be taken seriously, for example, we must reconcile the use of this aesthetic in his own fictions, such as in "Wandering Willie's Tale" in Redgauntlet, where Willie tells of Steenie Steenson's trip to hell to recover a rent receipt, and "The Fortunes of Martin Waldeck" from The Antiquary, where Martin encounters a goblin in a German forest. There is also Fergus MacIvor's "Bodach Glas" in Waverley, the "White Lady of Avenel" from The Monastery, "Beelzebub's postmistress" Meg Merrilies in Guy Mannering, and Norna of the Fitful-Head in The Pirate, to name just a few examples of Scott's supernatural grotesqueries.The second premise on which Voloshin and other critics rely to discount Scott's aesthetic influence on Poe is Scott's seemingly synonymous usage of the terms "grotesque" and "arabesque," whereas Poe, according to some, distinguishes them as two separate categories. Again, this argument also has difficulties in that it relies solely on Scott's Hoffman review, ignoring all of his other writings in which the grotesque and arabesque are discussed. For example, an 1808 letter from Scott to his friend John Bacon Sawrey Morritt indicates that Scott had different concepts of the terms well prior to his Hoffman criticism:What Scott is referring to here is the medieval tomb of Richard Bell, Bishop of Carlisle Cathedral, who died in 1496. A Latin inscription is engraved along a narrow strip of inlaid brass that runs around the cover of the tomb and mixed between some of the Latin words are engravings of a variety of animals. This brass strip is what Scott refers to as an "arabesque border." He is comparing the arabesque "accessories" inscribed into the brass to the eighteenth-century changes Gothic artists made to Glamis Castle in Strathmore (Scott 1808). Scott clearly differentiates the grotesque and the arabesque here, with the former being an excess of the latter. Additionally, even in the passage from the Hoffman criticism that is so often referred to by critics claiming that Scott meant the grotesque and arabesque synonymously, Scott explicitly makes the point that they are only partly alike.Scott's objection to Hoffman is not so much his use of the supernatural but that the author's imagination has "carried him too far 'extra moenia flammantia mundi,' too much beyond the circle of not only the probable but the possible." Scott goes on to say, "The supernatural in fictitious composition requires to be managed with considerable delicacy," and its overuse will cause it to lose its power. Scott quotes Edmund Burke and the book of Job as "sublime and decisive authorities" who prove that "the exhibition of supernatural appearances in fictitious narrative ought to be rare, brief, indistinct." These are hardly examples of overwrought imaginations. For Scott, the supernatural is best employed when it is "dark, uncertain, confused, and terrible." Here, he subscribes to Burke's contention, "To make anything very terrible, obscurity seems in general to be necessary" (A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1757, 43). In fact, this is the opposite of Poe, who thought popular literature required a coloring of the text, a heightening, from the ludicrous to the grotesque, from the fearful to the terrible. For Scott, Burke's supernatural is appealing because of the "uncertainty of strokes and colouring." If Hoffman had constrained his overwrought imagination in his supernatural literature, he would have been much more successful:Scott suggests that the grotesque is the product of an overwrought imagination, an exaggeration of the arabesque. Though Scott did exaggerate the supernatural to the absurd, the supernatural in his fictions appears much less frequently than in Hoffman's works, or, in fact, in Poe's works. However, there are still many examples of the supernatural and the grotesque form throughout Scott's novels.Another point to consider when examining Scott's aesthetic tenets is that if Scott did in fact have a distaste for the grotesque and meant for the grotesque and the arabesque to be synonymous terms, as some have argued, his distaste for the grotesque would necessarily mean an aversion to the arabesque, which does not seem to be the case, at least not in his own fictions, such as in The Fair Maid of Perth:In this passage, Scott refers to the arabesque as dark and leafless, but it adds to the overall beauty of the scene. Another example of Scott referring to the arabesque in positive terms can be found in The Talisman:Here Scott describes the excellent arabesque needlework that adds to the beauty of the shawls and muslins. Likewise, in Quentin Durward, Scott writes,The Count in this scene is wearing armor fashioned in an arabesque style, which Scott describes as "gorgeous." Scott certainly does not seem to have a distaste for the arabesque in his fiction. In fact, these passages demonstrate that he had a very positive view of the arabesque. This viewpoint is also evident in his poetry:In this passage from The Vision of Don Roderick, Scott again refers to the arabesque in positive terms. This passage also underscores the difference between Scott's and Poe's concepts of imagination yet again. Scott does not employ the fantastic; he relies instead on legends and visions, prophecies and signs. Nonetheless, the above passages from his novels and his poetry all seem to suggest that Scott greatly appreciated and even admired the arabesque. Both his novels as well as his poetry contain similar passages that overwhelmingly suggest that he valued the arabesque. In fact, there is even more direct evidence that indicates that Scott was not dogmatically opposed to the grotesque at all.Additionally, not all of Scott's writings view the grotesque as a completely undesirable aesthetic form. For example, in his early poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel, in Canto II Scott writes,Scott here is describing Melrose Abbey, a place he loved and admired for its beauty. The corbels were grotesque and grim, but this grotesque added to the beauty of the abbey. At least occasionally, Scott regarded the grotesque in a positive way, but he also recognized that the grotesque had a humorous or comic aspect. According to Lockhart, when he asked Scott if he liked the novel The Bride of Lammermoor, Scott replied, "As a whole, I felt it monstrous gross and grotesque; but still the worst of it made me laugh" (Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. Edinburgh: Robert Cadell, 1837, 275). Scott certainly did not have a dogmatic aversion to the grotesque, a fact to which a tour of his estate at Abbotsford will attest, adorned as it is with grotesque architectural accessories. Of course, these adornments are visual grotesques, which is relevant.Though both Scott and Poe refer to the grotesque in terms of a literary aesthetic, it is also appropriate that Scott is referring to the visual arts in his letter to Morritt and in his Hoffman criticism, as critical arguments surrounding the meaning of grotesque and arabesque have generally centered on defining the terms in relation to aesthetics in the visual arts and then translating those definitions into literary terms. Both of the terms "grotesque" and "arabesque" are rooted in the visual arts, and the Encyclopædia Americana of 1838 defined them in that context:Mabbott also defines the terms in the context of the visual arts: "Grotesque decoration (so called as found in ancient grottoes, as the Italians termed excavations) combines plant, animal, and human motifs. Arabesque uses only flowers and calligraphy" (474). The definitions put forth by the Encyclopædia Americana and Mabbott certainly do not seem to be precisely the description Scott had in mind in his 1808 letter to Moffitt, in which he describes the "arabesque" animal engravings on Bishop Bell's tomb. Nor does this idea seem to be what Scott meant in his Hoffman criticism, where he describes arabesque paintings that "introduce monsters." Poe, however, appears to have accepted this definition in his "Philosophy of Furniture":In visual art, according to Poe, flowers represent the arabesque.As the grotesque and the arabesque were applied as aesthetics in the visual arts, the terms were seldom used synonymously, and Scott did not mean the terms to be synonymous. Quinn suggests that "generally speaking, the Arabesques are the product of powerful imagination and the Grotesques have a burlesque or satirical quality" (289). Voloshin agrees, generally, with Quinn's assessment, but elaborates on what the terms meant to Poe:Yet Poe's originally titled collection Eleven Tales of the Arabesque, a collection he had written and titled sometime prior to 1833, which he meant to be "burlesques upon criticism," superficially belies the theories concerning the literary modes of the grotesque and arabesque put forth by Quinn, Voloshin, and others. The title and the obviously humorous and satiric nature of this collection suggest the exact opposite, that Poe meant for the arabesques to be humorous and satirical and, we can only assume, the grotesques to be serious and terrifying. Yet by the time Poe had written to White in defense of "Berenice" in 1835, suggesting that popular short stories must involve "the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical." Poe seems to allude to the same definition that Scott had in mind in his Hoffman criticism of 1827; the grotesque was an exaggeration of the horrible (the arabesque) to the point that it developed a humorous aspect. By the time Poe had renamed his collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque and written the preface, where he notes the "prevalence of the 'Arabesque'" in his "serious tales," this new belief seems to be accepted. Many scholars attribute to the arabesque characteristics such as bizarre, complicated, serious, poetic, terrifying, and visionary, while the grotesque is comic, burlesque, satiric, horrifically unfamiliar, and weird. However, as Donald H. Ross points out, we need to be very careful when attempting to define the grotesque in dualistic terms ("The Grotesque: A Speculation," Poe Studies 4, no. 1 June 1971: 10–11).There is certainly no reason to believe that Poe's engagement with the grotesque and arabesque was limited to any one source, and it is likely that he had been exposed to the terms from a variety of different texts. Even though there is no way to be certain as to when and where Poe got the idea of the grotesque and arabesque as literary aesthetic terms, there is ample evidence, I believe, to support the theory that Scott's criticism of Hoffman was at least one source for Poe's usage of the terms. Poe was well aware of the negative criticism the supernatural in German fiction had received, writing in the preface to Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque,Mabbott's research notes one instance of Poe's contemporaries criticizing his work as Germanic, as does The Poe Log (Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson, The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809–1849 Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987, 156). Though there is no way of determining whether Poe was conscious of Scott's Hoffman criticism or not, he was very familiar with Scott's fiction, even claiming The Bride of Lammermoor was the "most pure, perfect, and radiant gem of fictitious literature" ("Review of The Hawks of Hawk-Hollow," in The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe—Vol. III: Literary Criticism, pt. 1 1902, 8:63–73).And that Poe defended his works from being labeled "German" suggests that either he was aware that the literature he was writing was tied to German fiction or, at the very least, that he thought others felt as if his works were rooted in German Romanticism, the same fantastic German Romanticism that Scott had criticized. Yet despite Poe's insistence that his work does not fall under the influence of German fantasy literature, the title page to Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque bears a quotation from German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's fantasy poem titled "My Goddess," in which the immortal goddess of Fantasy has attained the highest possible reward.Since the publication of Poe's collection of grotesque and arabesque tales, the two terms have experienced opposing trajectories. The arabesque is a term seldom employed by modern theorists outside the circle of Poe scholarship. The grotesque, on the other hand, seems largely to have become a hackneyed term whose definition has become too imprecise for us to consider it an operative critical tool without difficulty. However, it seems as though Scott and Poe, at least for a time, had similar notions of the grotesque as a fluid aesthetic, one often meant to stimulate our imaginations and, occasionally, shock our senses.