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The Grotesque Key

The grotesque key is typical of passages and whole works which are written to produce a funny or ludicrous effect. This key can be divided into the following subtypes: humour, irony, and satire.

· Sometimes writers make fun of their characters. The tone of a story can be labelled humorous if the story is intended to excite laughter that is kindly and tolerant. Humour is warm, unintellectual, unsatirical. We describe in a humorous key somebody or something we are fond of. Dead-pаn humour occurs when the speaker pretends to be very serious. Black (sick) humour presupposes jokes that are made about subject like nuclear war, disability or disease that people otherwise find too painful to think about. At its highest level, humour is represented by witty observations on life and society, such as those by Oscar Wilde. Humour of this kind is more clever than comic. Examples are ‘There is one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about’, and ‘Work is the curse of the drinking classes’.

· Authors can make fun of their characters with far less sympathy. The language they use is ironicthat is, saying one thing and meaning another in order to be emphatic, amusing, sarcastic, etc.: ‘That’s really lovely!’ said when it’s raining heavily and you don’t have an umbrella on you. Sarcasm — use of bitter, especially ironic, remarks intended to wound somebody’s feelings. It’s harsh and often crude. Compare:

‘What a fine musician you turned out to be!’ (irony); ‘You couldn’t play one piece correctly if you had two assistants’ (sarcasm).

· Satire — use of taunting irony or sarcasm that is often directed at public figures or institutions, political situations, or at some moral or social vice. For example, G. Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984 attack totalitarianism, the manipulation of people’s actions and thoughts by an all-powerful state.

Amusing effect may be created through the implication of linguistic means (irony, puns, deliberate exaggerations, etc. — revise Unit 5, Part 1; and also words which do not fit in the situation) and extra-linguistic means (amusing characters and actions; unexpected turns of the events; trick endings, irony of the situation, play on the reader’s expectations, a too detailed manner of description or narration, etc.). These are just a few of the ways the language of a work of fiction shapes our reading experience. Slow down as you read and see if you can figure out what the writer is up to.

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