Along the frontier: Flannery O'Connor, Juan Rulfo and the form of the American Grotesque

Re1'ista de Es111dios Noneanrericanos. n. " 1 ( 199 J ). pp. 69-91 ALONG THE FRONTIER: FLANNERY O'CONNOR, JUAN RULFO AND THE FORM OF THE AMERICAN GROTESQUE JAMES NOLAN Universi dad de Salamanca One of thc most arresting details in modem Anglo-American fiction is the .. long strand of iron-grcy hair" discovered on the pi ll ow ne xt to th e "profound and lleshless grin" of the decayed corpse of the late Mi ss Emily Grierson 's lo ver (Faulkner, 500-1). In "A Rose for Emily ," William Faulkner unexpectedly converts what initially appears to be humorous Southem r ea lism into something both h01Tible and haunting, focusing onto that single strand of hair two conflicting li terary traditions at once: the psychological darkness of Poe, Melville and Crane together with th e r eg ional humor of writers such as Mark Twain. A generation latcr, primarily during the l 950 's and 60's , two distinct Iiterary phenomena were to occur in Anglo and Hi sp anic-American lit era tures, the Southem school and the Latin American Boom, both of which are marked by this same con ve r ge nce of humor and horror, of realism and th e extraordinary. The grotes qu e, as this quality has been called both by its admirers and detractors, is perhaps even more than an cssential ingredient in the fi ction of th ese two parallel movements, one which sets many of these works apart from o th er modero fiction employing the sarnc nar rat iv e t ec hnique s. Due to the quantity, qu ality and uniqueness of such fi ction appearing almost simultane ou sly in both American hemispheres, it is possibly time to consider the American grotesque not merely as a flavor but as a form of fiction, one which can take its place alongside of the romance and the short story itself as a di stinctive forrn developed in the Americas. 70 J a111e .1 No/c 111 It is no mere historical coincidcncc that thc American grotesque ga in ed prominence in both of these movcmcnts during this particular period. Thc colonial relationship between thc North and the So ut h has long mi rrorcd a s imilar one bctween the Unitcd States and Latín America. From the cnd of World War 11 through the l 960's the South as well as Latín America wa s undergoing a dramatic acceleration of a process long underway. thc transition from a basi ca lly rural, se mi-feudal social structurc towa rd and industrial de velopmcnt as engin ee red by Northem capitalist intcrest s. Just as thc shar e-cro pping Biblc Be lt was being transfom1ed into an urbanized Sun Belt. a similar proc ess was occuring in Latin America, where the Monroe Doctrine of the fruit companies was being converted into an Alliance for Progr ess between multinational corporations and a cheap urban work force. In Latín Ameri ca , as in the South , rural a re as with traditional cultures, once isolated by geography and frozen in hi story. werc being invadcd by not only a new power structure but by a ne w mentality from th e expanding industrial centers. '·En el interior del país." writes the Latin American cr itic Hernán Vid a!. "s e observa un arcaísmo, un atraso ge neral. un ' tradicionalismo ' en fl ag rante conflicto co n la modernidad de los lugares anterior es." (33) 1 n both regions this same ph enomcnon ha s fo nn ed a fronti er. a variation on the previous one between civilization and wilderness. along which a contlict between regional "backwardness" and impinging "deve lopment"' has produced what Flannery O'Conn or calls a "wi ld" fiction which is "of necessity going to be violen! and comic because of th e discrepancies it seeks to combine ." (Mystery mu/ Ma1111ers , 43) The only discrepancy associated with thc grotes quc , however. is not just that relating to its subject matter. On every levcl the grotesque is an art of contradictions, not the least of which is the writcr 's own attitude toward subject and language. Thc re exis ts among writers idcntified with '" backward" r egions what Vida! terms a "de pendencia'· or cultural inferiority co mplex which propels them toward world ce nters for se lf -definition. Southern and Lat ín American local talents have long been encouraged in the mo st sophisticated dir cctions of New York and París, respectively, in order to avoid the pejorativc label '·regionalist. .. Yet in the midst of th ese two movements quite a different response devcloped among its writcrs, typified by O'Connor's assertion That the anguish that most of us have observed for sorne time now has been caused not by the fact that the South is alienated from the re st of the country, but by thc fact that it is not alienatcd enough. that every day we are getcing more and mor e like the rcst of the country. that we are being for ced out not only of our many sins. but of our fe w vinues. ( Mvst en·, 28) A/1111g r/;e/i·omil'I': Flan11ery O'Co 11110r , Juan Rulf o ami rhefor111 <! f'the Amerirn11 Grmesqu<' 71 Thi s point of v iew repre se nts a r eactio n against what Vidal calls a "d ifusionis mo " of the values of d eve lopment in to t ra ditional rural world s. a reaction which is perhaps at the heart of the social m ea ning of the grotesque. Yet the grotesquc is no ta 11aif form, not lite rar y folk art by any meaos. It reprcsents. on the one hand, the Lriumph of r eg ionalism, yet on th e other. one exe cuted with techniques borrowed from the very dominant cultures it ullimately opposes. Opposition to the va lues of New York and París often res ults in great successcs in these centers. and to the extent that the lat cr work of such Southern and Latin American writers as Truman Capote and José Donoso was cosmopolitanizcd. it ceased co embody the grotesque. In view of this tension between the confiicting demands of regionalism and techniquc. ir is ironic that the Latín Am erican writcrs are far more Faulknerian than their So uthern counterparts. García Márquez observes that Fau lkn er "e stá metido en toda la novelística de la Am éri ca Latina:· that the significan! difference bctween his genera ti on of writers and the pr ev i ous one is the influence of Faulkner, whom he claims as "un escritor del Caribe. de alguna manera ... un escr itor latinoamericano.'" (Novela. 53) The Faulknerian method. he continucs. "es muy eficaz par a contar la realidad latinoamerican a." a met hod in which the traditi ona l devices of time, voice, narration and character are distort cd in order to capt ure a complex history and consciousness with multiper spec ti ves. The method ha s been utilized not only by Ga rcía Márquez, but by ot hers of the Boom writers who have worked in the gro tes que forro, such as Ju an Rulfo, Miguel Angel Asturias and Mario Vargas Llosa. In effect, th ey have "killed th eir father s" in the Harold Bloom sense of influence by finding a foreign one. yet they have remained rcgionalists. Th e Southern writers have accomplished the same, not by repeating the identical narrative ex per im ents of Faulkner, but by eschewing his Modemist distortions. Writers such as Carson M cCu llers, Flanncry O'Connor. Eudora Welty and Walker Per cy turned towa rd what appears as an almo st hype rrea li s rn by comparison, which Car s on McCullers claims owes mu ch to thc influence of wr iters such as Gogol a nd Chekhov in h er cssay ''T hc Russian Realists and Southem Literature." Here she cousins the Russian Realists in the sa me manner in which García Márquez cou sins Faulkner. cxplaining ho w much "the Sout h and old Russia have ... in c ommon sociologically ... Economi ca ll y and in ot her ways it has been us ed as a sor t of colony to the rest of the nation. The poverty is unlike anything known in other parts of thc nation. In social structure therc is a d iv ision of classes similar to that in old Ru ssia." (260) Yct the Southem grotesque is no more derived from the Ru ssian Realis ts than thc Latin American gro tesquc is derived from Faulkne r. What both represent are influential trea tmcnts forma l ized by previous write rs and wh at was borrowcd were the fo nn alizations. not the grotesque it se lf. Th e imporrance in th cse comparisons. howcvcr. is that the grotesque may be d eve l oped using a wide variety of tcch- Jumn No/u 11 niques. from the Faulknerian to the Russian Realist, and that the sociological kinship expresscd. bcyond any cvidence of a "dependencia" on foreign influcnccs, indicates a common cultural basis for its generation as a forro. In addition, it is significant that the Russian Formalist critics, such as Eichembaum and Bakhtin, two generations removed from the Russian Realists, were the first to formulare many of the dynamics of the grotesque, and it is to them that we shall turn now for a tenninology useful toward defining it in its American form. 11 The "'grotesque" has become a considerably vague tcrm. and evcry critic who writes on any aspect of the grotesque invariably begins by reinventing it. Fcw agree with each other. thereforc the tem1 has been stretched to include such an extensive variety of authors and texts as to seem meaninglessly clastic. If Mann. Browning. Kafka, Rabelais. Heine. Austen and Byron are ali, in fact, writers of the grotesque. one might question the usefulness of using this term. If the grotesquc is basically "the unresolvcd clash of incompatibles in work and response." as Thompson concludcs (27), or what Kayser summarizes as "t he stranged world" (184 ). is there any work either intcrcsting or important in modern fiction which is not grotesque? One universal assumption among these critics is that the grotesque refers to an exaggerated degree of unfamiliarity along that broad spectrum between the "familiar" and the ··unfamiliar." using herc the terms of the Russian Fonnalists for the normal or real and the abnormal or unreal. Although the basis for much discussion is the exact location of the grotesque along this continuum. where it is generally placed somewhere between thc unusual and the bizarre, it follows that the grotcsque is not inherent within the tension of a work but is another relativistic form of readcr response. Kayser cmphasizes that "the grotesque is experienced only in the act of reception." ( 181) This gives rise to an interpretation of the grotesque as an almost touristic phenomcnon. given that a reader from outside of a culture will ccrtainly find a much greater degree of unfamiliarity than one from within the same culture about which thc work is written. As Anglo-American readers. thercfore. must wc dismiss thc grotesque as an integral part of Hispan icAmerican fiction bccause. as García Márquez claims, ··soy un escritor realis ta, porque creo que en América Latina todo es posible, todo es real'"? ( 19) Likcwise. Flannery o · connor maintains that .. I have written severa! storics which did not scem to me to havc any grotesque characters in them at ali, but which have been immediately labcled grotesque by non-Southern readers. I find it hard to beli eve that what is observable behavior in one section ca n be without parallel in another." (Mystcry . 32) If th e non-Southern reader finds any degree of unfamiliarity in her storics. is it only because of the "observable behavior" to which he is Alo11g the fro111ier· f'/an11e1 : \" O' Co111111r. J11 a11 R11/fo ami tire form of the American Grotrsque 73 accustomed? In this case, the grotesque is a relativc aspe ct of the exoticism of regional writing, as perceived relativistically in each reader 's imagination, and has a minimal connection with the form of the work. These critics, most of whom are oriented toward European literature, th us define the grotesque as a quality of read er response to certain detachable elements of the work: descriptions, events. ch aracters or even language may seem grotesque, that is, demonstrate a hi gh degree of unfamiliarit y. The critics are qui ck to point out grotesque elements in works of parody or fantasy, and then are equally incline<l to incorporate into their definitions of the grotesque the attributes of these other literary forros, spawning many hyphenated sub-species of th e grotesque such as the playful-grotesque or the satiric-grotesque. It is not un t il one turns to the grotesque in Anglo or Hispanic-American fiction that the possibi lity occurs that th e grotesque may not only be a qua lit y present in o th er forms, but that it may be a literary form in it sel f. As such, th e grotesque has it s own structural and ontological basis, one which is equal to but different from those of such similar forms as parody or fantasy, absurdist or surrealist fiction. Whereas for the critic of European literature the grotesque is primarily an adjective, the critic of American literature must come to terms with its existence as a noun, as a di stinctly American form. The difference between the grotes qu e as an adjective (lo gro tesco) and the grotesque as a noun (e/ grotesco) is in many ways parallel to the difference between the romantic and the romance. The romantic is an adjective which is used to describe certain qualities in works as dissimilar as the novcls of Sir Walter Scott and the poetry of Juan Ramó n Jiménez; like the grotesque, it has become a term of such a broad and confused me aning that it must be reinterpreted everytime it is use d. The romance, on the oth er hand, is a distinct literary form first dev elope<l in Spain 's Siglo de Oro as a form of poet ry and later by Nathanicl Hawthorne in the J 9th century United St ates as a form of short fiction. In a similar fashion, the American grotesque as a form developed as a response to conflicts inherent in the culture out of which it grew. The grotesque represents yet another approach to the conflict between wilderness and civilization which both Anglo and Hispanic-American criti cs such as Ri chard Chase and Carlos Fuentes find central to the meanings of these American literatures. In both hemispheres, for Puritan as well as Conquistador, nature was a fierce enemy to be conquered: "Quién iba a pensar," writes Fue nt es, "e n la serenidad del alma reco rri endo un río de pirañas y esperando la flecha envenenada de una tribu de jíbaros desnudos?" (9) On one side was "la serenidad del alma," God, European ci vi li zation and the Hi gher Selves of the co lonists which they represented; on the other, the de v il in camate as the threatening wildemess, the .. jíbaros desnudo s" who lived there and thc colonists' Lower Selves which they cmbodied. Two of th e earliest uses of the word grotesque in art hi story illuminate its relationship to this co nflict. Both th e paintings excavated from the grottos of 74 James Notan Augustan Rome as well as the Paleolithic cave frescoes discovered in Spain and France feature the hybrid depiction of human and animal forms, including "i nterspecies intercourse, cannibalism, necrophagy, and sacrifice -all of which were intended to emphasize affinities with the natural world ... " (Harpham, 64) This "first step in the articulation of the human personality," this biassociation of human and animal forros, is necessarily linked to that raw edge where civilization and wildemess entwine, either temporally in history or spatially in geography. After the Romanization of Western Europe, this frontier was not to appear again as part of Western experience until the colonization of the New World, which is why the grotesque persisted as a theme or element of folkloric derivati on in the developing European literatures but did not emerge as a full literary form. The wild folk rituals which Mikhail Bakhtin finds as a basis of the grotesque elements in the satires of Rabelais were the lingering traces of an original confrontation that has since been repeated along the American frontier, which ha s given birth to new forros of relating the lamed and untamed. Upon the colonization of the Americas, the Europeans not only confronted again the wildemess out of which they once developed, but the presence of preliterate, tribal people s, both the native American as well as the African slave, all of which represented an atavistic memory of the very grottos and caves in which the painful process of civilization had initially been worked out in their culture. In a real sense, the colonization process was and continues to be a descent into this "heart of darkness," as the European sees it, a re-entry into those grottos, armed this time with pen and ink rather than sharpened flints, and what has eme rged often resembles the original hybrid forms. Th e grotesque grew as a distinct form following this frontier. In Anglo-American literature it first appeared with the supematural romances of Hawthome, "Young Goodman Brown" being a classic example, and then followed the Westward expansion in the tall tal e, the folk legend and much of regional humor, in which human-animal transformations and deformed trickster characters abound. Many of th ese tales are thinly disguised versions of native American and African folk tales, with a thin overlay of Wes tern values over which the untamed elements usually triumph. With the spread of European civilization, the conflict inherent in the frontier was arrested in certain isolated, agricultura] areas such as the South and those large areas of Latín America yet undominated by urban culture, where the transculturated de scendents of native Americans, African slaves and wild frontier whites still li ve. Thi s conflict between wilderness and civilization has since been translated into t he terms of a conflict between "backwardness" and "development," and it is out of this fertile ground that a complex form of fiction has grown which can be defined as the grotesq ue. The Am er ican grotesque is an inverted fonn of the picturesque in regional fiction, in wh ic h form the victory of the familiar (civ ili zation) over the unfamil- A long rhe frnmier: Flannery O'Connor , Juan Rulfo aJUl the form of rhe A111airn11 Grotes1¡11c 75 iar (wildemess) is usually celebrated, as in cowboy and gauchesco epics. In the grotesque, however, the familiar is violated hy the unfamiliar. the human and bestial presented as simultaneously interpenetrating, producing an cffect of both humor and repulsion as a means of confronting this conflict between civilization and wildemess. While the grotesque almost atavistically reasserts the power of the wild, unlike in the horror genre this element is tamed by humor, which "disarms the demonic," according to Jennings (16), rendering it ludicrous yet haunting, palatable yet disturbing. On many levels, the grotesque is thc re-enactment in a new form of the old story of the missionaries and the savages, or of the cowboys and Indians, of the struggle between their values, yet with the picturesque tumed upside down as an assault on the "civilized" point of view. Part of the society, always regional and usually rural. consists of native Americans, blacks or poor whites. Much of the action, however, takes place in the less defined spheres of transculturation, in the mulato or mestizo areas between groups. in which Indians, blacks and poor whites act like the native petite bourgeoisi e, or they in turn act like the lndians, blacks or poor whites. This inspires a confusion of identities, the low becoming high, the high, low, as a basic comic device. The grotesque hero embodies this confusion as a trickster who moves fr ee ly between both worlds yet belongs to neither, just as on another level he is composed physically and psychologically of both human and animal attributes. His deformity, whether as physical or psychological characteristic oras gesture, is a usually shocking convergence of both these human and animal qualities which in sorne way violates the norms of the socicty in which he lives, functioning at the samc time as a stigmata of his blessed union of higher with lowcr: highcr with lower self. higher with lower body, animal with human. primitive with civilized. demonic with religious. As a form. the grotesque is structured by a comp lex of levels upon whi ch thcse polarities of the familiar and the unfamiliar converge. Yet not only the devclopmcnt of the grotesque character and its rclation to socie ty are significam, but the use of narrative language is itself an essential part of this complex. Boris Eichenbaum defines ihe narrativc of thc grotesquc as an essentially serious or even sad story related in comicly exaggerated language. In "Cómo está hecho 'El capote' de Gogol." he maintains that Gogol 's story contrasts a melodramatically declamatory style with a loose, conversational anecdotal voice, as wcll as juxtaposing pathetic details with puns, ridiculous names and other forms of word pl ay. ln a parallel yet distinctive manner. the American grotesquc combines elements of regional humor. a sermo remissus or low style - including use of dialect. stock comic types. slapstick situations, regional vocabulary and prepospcrous nameswith a sermo gravis or high style of detachcd, often elliptical narration of gruesome or sordid details. which might include techniques ranging from the naturalistic to the Faulknerian. The regional humor distances the reader from identifica- 7fi James No /u n tion with co ntent, modifying the full effect of the latter, which involves the reader on an unfamiliar level of fear and/or repulsion. This reader-distancing/ reader-involvement weaves into a form of structural irony , which serves as a basis for the pr esentation of the complex of polarities centered around the oppo - sition between civilization and wildemess, thus assuring the co ntradictory effect of the grot esque. Laughter as a familiar, civilized res pon se acts as a form of control, allowing the reader to "laugh off' -almost but not quite-the effects of the more serious style of narration, transforming the horrible into the "s ick ." Although the grotesque utilizes black humor as a form of structural irony, ali black humor does not conform to the formal pattems pre se nt in the grotesque, in which the series of converging relationships can be visuali ze d in this way: The Unfamiliar point of co nvergence The Familiar Effect: macabre ... repulsion/ ... grotesque~humor ~ burlesque fe ar Character: bestial ... deformity ~human as demonic ... sti gm ata ~God Setting: wilderne ss ... frontier ~ civilization Social ldentity: tribal, ... lndi an, ... trickster misfit ~ native ~ national traditional bla ck, petite bourgeoisie poor white bourgeoisie ( disinherited) Language: reader involvem en t ... (matter-of-fact narration of disturbing details) irony ~ r ea der distance (regional humor) This unique co nver gen ce of the familiar a nd the unfamili ar in the Am erican grotesque provides both the m ean ing and the form of the wo rk. Th e grotesqu e, how eve r, is often co nfused with other forms of the strange in fiction, with parody and satire as well as with absurdist and surrealist fiction. lt might preve useful at A long rheji·onlie!"· Fla1111ery O'Connor. Juan Rulfo and tile formo[ tite American Groresque 77 this point to contrast the unique relationship between the familiar and unfamiliar in the grotesque with different pattems in similar forms. The three examples which Philip Thomson presents as examples of the grotesque in his book are actually classic instances of grotesque description in the service of these other forms. (1-9) Swift's grotesque dcscription in "A Modest Proposal'' of the sale and eating of Irish babies is part of a larger parody. that is, the unfamiliar (cannibalism) is seen in terms of the familiar (home economics) Kafka's grotesque description in "Thc Metamorphosis" of the transformation of Gregor Samsa into a beetle sets the scene for an extendedfantasy, that is, thefamiliar (waking up, getting around as a human) is seen in terms of the unfamiliar (the body of an insect). Beckett's grotesque description in Watt of the geriatrically infirrn Lynch family in part of the Iarger context of an ahsurdist novel, that is, the familiar (family life) complete/y disappears into the unfamiliar (the Bosch-like presentation) with no particular meaning. Since nothing makes sense here anyway, little is violated as the familiar is rapidly estranged and dissolved into a pervasive alienation. In addition, one might choose almost at random any of the non-parodie passages in a William Burroughs novel to illustrate grotesque description in the service of surrealist fiction, in which only the unfamiliar exists, in no relationship at ali to any unrepresented familiarity: the unexpected is expected, the unreal the only norm. The relationship between the familiar and the unfamiliar in the American grotesque most closely resembles that of the absurd, with which it is often confused. For instance, severa) critics have called the Theater of the Absurd a theater of the grotesque, as does Kaiser-Lenoir in El grotesco criollo. In the absurd, however, the unfamiliar is introduced in the interest of meaninglessness, without meaning, leaving no basis for anything happening or not happening, as in an Ionesco play. The image of an albino dwarf dressed in a military uniform in the New York subway would be an absurdity, since within the context of a major metropolitan subway system, the alien and chaotic are commonplace, providing a perfect setting for the absurd. In the grotesque, however, the unfamiliar is presented against a meaning firrnly established by a highly structured familiar. The image of an albino dwarf dressed as a priest celebrating a mass in a Mexican cathedral would be grotesque, for it depends for its meaning on the meaning which it violates. As the violation of a static, hierarchal social reality centered in religious belief by a more primitive or uncivilized reality, the American grotesque is as rooted in religion as is blasphemy itself. This is an essential part of the rcason why it has emerged in the Sourth and in Latín America, where there remains a strong social, moral and religious hierarchy to violate. Flannery O'Connor writes that 84 James Notan (223-24) Parker is, in fact, a white Indian, his tattooed body reflecting a fusion of the wild and the European, with "a tiger anda panther on either shoulder, a cobra coiled about a torch on his chest, hawks on his thighs, Elizabeth Il and Philip over where his stomach and liver were respectively." (224) The grotesque entanglement of wild animals with kings and queens, emblematic in itself of th e convergence prcsent in the American grotesque, is the essence of bis own conflict projected onto his body. His pagan religion of instinct and sexuality is more than skin deep., however, for he feels "as if the panther and the lion and the serpents and the eagles and the hawks had penetrated his skin and lived inside him in a raging warfarc." (225) This integration of interior with exterior underlines the cant and hypocrisy of Sarah Ruth 's fundamentalist Christianity superimposed on her beast-like body. Yet Parkcr's contact with her precipitates a deeper need to a11iculate his belonging, thus he ponders the right tattoo to bring Sarah Ruth to hell." (232) His religious vision in the form of a tractor accident with a buming tree becomes literally a buming bush of vision, during which he is thrown "on his back" and hears himself "yelling in an unbelievably loud voice, GOD ABOYE." (232) lt is equally important that when he first tries to make lave to Sarah Ruth befare marrying her, she pushes him "flat on his back on the ground." (229) Parker 's back, the only untattooed space left on his body, be ing the only anatomical part that he himself cannot see, represents this incompleted relationship with God, religion, society: the othemess beyond body. Bakhtin emphasizes that the grotesque body exists "in the act of becoming. It is never finished, never completed." (317) Parker feels this incompletion: "The effects was not of one intricate arabesque of colors but of something haphazard and botched. A huge dissatisfaction would come over him and he would go off and find another tattooist and have another space filled up." (225) This desire for completion is always realized in terms of his body, therefore it is on his "invisible" back where he tries to translate the unphysical into the physical, give pagan expression to thc Christian, using an image which he thinks will please that link which joins him to this threateningly bodiless form of othemess. Parker chooses the "haloed head of a flat stem Byzantine Christ with all demanding eyes" from the more primitive and less reassuring pictures of God near the b eg inning of the book which the artist shows him." (234-35) The "ali demanding eyes," of course, match Sarah Ruth's "i ce pick" ones. paganism ~ "arabesques of men and beasts and flowers" deformity as stigmata tattoo of Byzantine Christ on his back "GODABOVE" "on his back" woman-asreligion A/onfi theji-ontier: Flannery O 'Connor. J uw1 Rulfi> and the form of the American Grotesque 85 The meaning of this grotesque deformity is the social meaning which it violates, and in thc fundamentalist, rural South, the tattoo of a Byzantine Christ is as close to blasphemy as one can get, both in form and content. In a culture where women avoid cosmetics, the tattoo itself is seen as a forrn of moral depravity, and onc of a sinistcr "Papist" Christ would be an outrage, a defilement of thc already defiled. Sarah Ruth 's reaction immediately transforms her into woman-as-civilization: her first words are "And you ain't going to have none of me this ncar morning," as she then screams, "Idolatry! Enflaming yourself with idols under every green tree! I can put up with lies and vanity but I don't want no idolator in this house!" (243) She then beats Parker on his back with a broom "until large welts had formed on the face of the tattooed Christ." (244) His deformity becomes literally thc bleeding stigmata of his misunderstood paganism and defeated in his inarticulate longing to belong, the white Indian with the Biblical name -"w ho called himself Obadiah Elihue"-is seen "leaning against the tree, crying like a baby.'' (224) Lucatero and Morones as distinct characters appear to play almost identical roles as grotesque tricksters, yet the deformity which chey display as emblematic of their bodily shamanism is a gesture, notan actual deformation of their bodie s. The polarities between the bestial nature of Lucatero and the religiosity of the beatas is immediately established in the first scene, as Lucatero squats with his pants down while the old women approach shouting "Ave María Purísima." This polarity is played off with extensive irony during their encounter, as the women are portrayed in cven more radically bodily terms. For example, Lucatero pretends not to recognize one of the women, an ex-lover who grew old waiting for him and who finally identifies herself. After he rhapsodizes about her ticklishness, she informs him thac she aborted his baby like "un pedazo de cecina." (122) Like the egg-eating rabbits which Lucatero claims to keep, both he and Morones are moral aberrations somewhere between the human and animal. Lucatero marri ed Morones' daughter four months pregnant with her father' s child. E ven though for the women Morones is the "Niño Santo," Lucatero calls him "e l vivo demonio," one who "dejó sin vírgenes esta parte del mundo." (128) The interplay between "sa nto" and "demonio" culminates when we leam that Morones slept with most of these beatas, showing great tenderness. Ahora está hablando la Hué1fana, la del eterno llorido. La vieja más vieja de todas. Tenía lágrimas en los ojos y le temblaban las manos: -Yo soy huérfana y él me alivió de mi orfandad; volví a encontrar a mi padre y a mi madre en él. Se pasó la noche acariciándome para que se me bajara mi pena ... La única noche feliz la pasé con el Niño Anacleto, entre sus co n so ladores brazos. Y ahora tú hablas mal de él. (129) 86 Jam es Notan The lesson of spiritually redemptive sexuality which Moron es taught the beatas is summed up by one ("Soy soltera pero tengo mari do ") who explains: " Soy mujer. Y una na ce para dar lo que le dan a una ... Sí, él me aconsejó que lo hiciera, para que se me quitara Jo hepá ti co. Y me junté co n alguien. Eso de tener cincu enta años y ser nueva es un pecado ." ( 130) "e l vivo demonio" demon deformity as st igmata sex with beatas "Lo conocimos como santo" saint The deformity of both Lucatero and Mo rones, w hi ch is also the stigmata of their sexual shamanism, is the ge sture of having sex with beatas. Again, th e meaning of this deformity depends on the social meaning which it violates. In Spanish Catholic countries, widowed or single older women, usually grandmotherly and fanatically religious, who dress in black and haunt the churches, wh ere th ey perform small chores such as sweeping or changing flowers, are known as beatas (from de v it a beata, a pious retirement ). Occasionally the objects of r ev er - ence, humor or even distaste, the idea of having sexual relations with a beata is as outrageously grotesque a gesture as any Latin Catholic (w ho tend to be profic ie nt in such gestures) could i ma gine. Yet Morones, and toward the end of the story Lucatero, both treat the beatas as woman-as-body, nota s woman-as-religion, mu ch to the women's redemption. Although most of the story concerns the saint-asdemon, th e last line poignantly summarizes the women 's view of the demonas - saint: "E l Niño Anacleto. El sí sabía hacer el amor." (133) The superficiality of the imposed Catholic religion is stripped away by the "amoroso" shamanism of Moron es for these poor Mexican-Indian women, and a more powerfully primitive idea of bod il y religion is asserted, as it is with the deformity of Parker 's tattoo. As grotesques, humor is a signifi ca nt part of th e design of both stories, distancing the reader by means of a regional l ow style form the more di s tu rbing psychological and symbolic aspects w hi ch derive from th e seriously naturalis ti c narration. The irony inherent in the co nvergence of the various contradictory lcvels of pagan/Christian, demon/saint and woman as body/civilization is also a function of the contrasting styles in which the material is presented. On the onc hand is an elliptically structured natura li sm , which fo cuses in almost photographic detail on the animalistic aspects of the human body, as well as on th c poverty and isolation of the environment. This emphasis on dirt and deformity, howevcr. is undercut by an exaggerated regional humor con si sting of slapstick Alo11g rhe ji'onrier: Flannery O'Comwr . Juan Rulfo and tire form of the American Grotesque 87 situations, preposterous names used as ironic characterizations, word play, dialect speech and regional language suggestive of bamyard humor. Both stories are narrated in a detached, economical manner with no authorial interference. Although "Parker's Back" is narrated in the third person and "Anacleto Morones" in the first by Lucatero, both begin their past tense narrations with the man/woman confrontation, progressing the action backward and forward in time by omniscient flash-backs in the former and dialogue and interior monologue in the latter, until they culminate in the deformity which punctuates each ending. Both acts of deformation are products of a structural tension which they resolve. Yet both narratives are filled with gaps or leaps which invite reader identification and participation as the missing connectives solicit the conversion of surface realism into psychological depth. Both authors have made perceptive comments on this important aspect of their styles. Rulfo claims that he suppressed "las ideas con que el autor llenaba los vacíos y evité la adjetivación entonces de moda ... La práctica del cuento disciplinó, me hizo ver la necesidad de que el autor desapareciera ... " (lnframundo, 6) O 'C onnor likewise comments that "connections which we would expect in the customary kind of realism have been ignored ... there are strange skips and gaps." These gaps make the narrative "lean away from typical social patterns, toward mystery and the unexpected." (Mystery, 40) This ellipitical structuring of scenes, dialogue and description forms narrative spaces which cause the reader to move from the level of the highly concrete, in which the grotesques is anchored, toward the religious, to which the grotesque points. Yet converging with this narrative high style is a comic low style which simultaneously reverses this direction, preventing reader involvement and disarming the more disturbing level to which the high style elliptically points, holding it in ironic tension with regional humor. In "Parker's Back," the symbolic implications of Parker 's back are ironically undercut by the slapstick circumstances under which he always lands on his back. After Sarah Ruth refuses his advances and pushes him out of the truck, on his back, "he made up his mind then and there to have nothing to do with her." The next sentence flows with pure comic timing: "They were married in the County Ordinary's office beca us e Sarah Ruth thought churches were idolatrous." (229) There, we get a slice or regional humor as "an old woman with red hair who had held office for thirty years and looked as dusty as her books" marries them "from behind the iron grill of a stand up desk and when she finished she said with a flourish, 'T hree dollars and fifty cents and till death do you part." (23 0) Another comic exaggeration are the names, which are themselves a fo1m of ironic description. "O bidiah" and "Elihue" are both Biblical names which mean "w orshipper of Jehovah" and "w hose God is He," respectively. Sarah Ruth 's last name, Cates, means "a rich and delicate food," no doubt as commentary on how she "just threw food into the 88 James No/un pot and Jet it boíl." (231) Thc use of these ironic names. as well as the "red neck" dialect of thc dialogues, the stock types and other forms of regional familiarity creates a tone of glossy cariacture which contrasts with the details of povcrty, suffering and cmotional ferocity which draw the reader into the narrative. In '"Anacleto Morones," the story it self is structured like the joke about the "ten little Indian maidens" as the ten little lndian beatas disappear one by one, lcaving only "one little lndian rnaiden" to sl eep with Lucatero. The slapstick tone of this eliminalion process is established in the first sce n e, as the ten women cover their eyes in unison as Lucatero buttons up hi s pants. The way in which the "ten littlc Indian maidens" talk and act in unison throughout rhe story makes them appear ridiculous in spite of the naturalistic terms in which they are described. As in the O 'C onnor story, the exaggerated narnes are each word plays which ironically characterize each character. The town where the mule-women come from is , of course, Amula. Anacleto Morones suggests "A naclástica" (ana - tomical: bent backwards, deformed) as well as ''Morón," the "rnound" of s tones w hi ch he. in fact, has become in the yard. The alliterative Lucas Lucatero s ug - gests Lucifer Lucífero, which means bo1h devil and resplendent ligh t. The names of the women rnake each a comic type: Pancha Fregoso suggesls "panza" (belly) "fregona" (scrubgirl). The woman who aborted Lucatero's baby like " un pedazo de ceci na" is, of course, named Nieves. Th e one who vo mit s is Filomena (nig ht - ingale). and 1h e ''so ltera" who knows how to di stribute what God gave her is Micaela (female monkey). The use of Mexicanismos and alrnost conslant word play adds to 1hi s tone of comic exaggeration. Lucatero has confessed "hasta por adelantado," ( 125) plays on "santo" and "santero" and on Morones, who looking upon hirn with "o jos para perpetuarse." gave him his daughter "ya perpetuada." ( 127) The final five lines of the story, separated by a narrative jump, actas a structural punch line which focuses the irony resulling from the convergence of the two styles: "El Niño Anacleto. El sí sabía hacer el amor." (l 33) The combina1ion of naturalistic and hurnorous styles projects onto this lines an effect similar to Faulkner 's "long strand of iron-grey hair" as the repulsive (sex with heatas) yet patheti ca lly amusing (they like it) truth is driven home. Th e effect of both of these stories. as with "A Rose for Ernily," is haunting: since the comic elements prevent a full ernotional involvernent and ca1harsis, yet the naturalistic descriptions restrict any full release by laughter. the re ader is not perrnitted a satisfactory exit from the worlds in which he has been submerged. They rernain with the reader as a troubling presen ce a little longer than usual, a slight srnile that tends to furrow 1h e brow more one thinks on it. A long the frontier: Fla1111 ery O'C onn or . Juan R11/fo and t he form of the Amer ican Gro te sq ue 89 IV The grotesque is a troubling, not an uplifting, form of fiction. Consequently, despite the interest in the grotesque aroused by the work of the Southem and Hispanic-American writers of the past few decades, the tenn continu es to retain a negative c onn otation for many. Southern writers have been cri ti cized for their grotesques by Christian critics such as Van Wyck Brooks for many of the same reasons that Hispanic-American writers have been criticized by Marxist crit ic s, that is, in the words of the Marxist critic Hernán Vidal, th e grotesque represents "los mitos demoníacos de la degradación humana." (102) Even though, ironically, O'Connor was a devout Catholic and most of the Hispanic-American writers are outspoken Leftists, perhaps these critics are correct in one point: there is something profoundly subversive about the American grotesque. As a form, it not only undermin es this theology or that ideology, but perhaps ridicul es a li such imported frameworks, whatever their content, ali such attempts to uplift either th e soul or the masses, and thereby to make literature the mirror and guide of society. O'Connor, as she sees it, writes "about people who are poor, who are afflicted in both mind and body, who have little --0r at best a distorted-sense of spiritual purpose, and whose actions apparently do not give the reader a great assurance of the joy of life." (Mystery, 32) Rulfo's subject, according to Carlos Monsivais, is "la poesía secreta y pública de los pueblos y las comunidades campesinas, mantenidos en la marginalidad y el olvido programado por la nación (sinónimo de las clases dominantes) ... Marginalidad y amnesia han sido tácticas indispensables de la estrategia de la modernización ... "( lnji·amundo, 27) In either case, these country people are not part of sorne religious or social programmatic for their own development; as individuals, they seem to resise not only the politics of religion but the religion of politics. Nor are they romanticized, as European writers tcnd to portray their own picturesque cultural pasts. If anything, the pain, co nflict and humor of their livcs are exaggerated th ere along that frontier which most urban readers, awash in developmental ideologies, know little about in the amnesia of their modernization. As readers, we tum to the g rotesque with the cno rmous pleasure that we do to confirm our own Americanness, our sense of America as a place rather than as an idea. It is to be cxpected, then, that those who first conceive of America as an idea -e ither for the betterment of the soul or society-should not approve of this shameless mythologizing of pl ace, especially of one so recently snatched from th e forest or jungle, where tattooed men seduce preachers' daughters, religious charlatans slcep with litrle old ladies, and nothing is quite as it should be. Yet the grotesque represents a highly unrealistic form of r eg ionalism. ' Tm always having it pointed out to me," writers O'Connor, "that li fe in Georgia is 90 James No/a 11 not at ali the way l picture it, that escaped crim in als do not roam the roads cxtenninating familes, nor Bible salesmen prowl about looking for girls with one leg." (Mystery. 38) Rulfo has a similar complaint, that his counrrymen "creen que la novela es una transposición de hechos, que debe describir la región y los personajes que allí vivieron. La literatura es ficción y por lo tanto, es mentira." ( /11framu11d o. 7) Although the grotesque strongly establi shes this sense of place, it is never significant until it transcends it, exaggerating and otherwise distorting this pl ace into more universal metaphor» O'Connor 's Georgia, Rulfo's Jalisco, García Márquez' Macando and Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha are ultimately places only in the American mind. As such, "Los funerales de la Mamá Grande" is as much about the Long family dynasty in Louisiana as it is about Colombia, Faulkner's Ahsalom Absalom is as much about Central American criollos as it is the family history of a Mississippi plantation. More recent writers continuing in the Southern/Hispanic-American form of the grotesque would be Rosario Ferré in Papeles de Pandora and John Kennedy Toole in A Cmzfederacy of Dunce s, books which add Puerto Rico and New Orleans to these places in the American mind. As we have seen with the two stories by O'Connor and Rulfo, the writers of American grotesques se em to ali be tclling the s ame story in its myriad variations, using place paradoxically to move beyond it. This is the American story, one which we already know, but in its grotesque version. a deformed ye t blessed trickster does battle with civilization along the frontier and, as in th e Paleolithic cave drawings, leaves mysteriously frightening yet amusing signs which indicare that civilization did not win-completely. Along rhe fronrier: Fla1111ery O'Connor. Juan Rulfo a11d rhe form of rhe American Grotesque 91 BIBLIOGRAPHY BAKHTIN, Mikhail: Rabelais and His World. Trans. Helene Iswolsky. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1968. EICHEMBAUM, Bori s: "Cómo está hecho 'El Capote' de Gogol". FAULKNER, William: "A Rose for Emily". In The Portable Faulkner. Ed. Malcom Cowley. New York: Viking Press, 1946. FIEDLER, Leslie: Freaks: Myths and lmages of the Secret Self. New York: Simon & Shuster, 1978. 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