The monstrous and the marvelous / Rikki Ducornet.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ducornet, Rikki, 1943-

Language:

English

Physical Description:

124 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

San Francisco, Calif. : City Lights ; Monroe, OR : Primary distributor, Subterranean Co., [1999]

Summary:

Rikki Ducornet says that "The world is a ceremonial dialogue to be actively engaged, and life's intention the searching out of the fertile passsages and places, a fearless looking for the thorny A and B in everything." In this collection of essays Ducornet focuses her "fearless looking" on the monstrous and the marvelous. A subversive aesthetic of terror and pleasure informs her assessment of writings by Swift, Kafka, Borges, Angela Carter and Robert Coover, films by the Brothers Quay and David Lynch, and artworks by Joseph Cornell, Ramon Alejandro, and Rosamond Purcell. In investigating such subjects as Peter the Great's Wunderkammern and ogresses in literature, she examines the trajectory of historical fascination with marvels and anomalies, a fascination that coincides ironically with the growth of scientific rationalism and the Enlightenment.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 121-124).

ISBN:

0872863549

OCLC:

40739009