Negotiating Irvin Yalom’s existential concerns through the grotesque in selected works of Oscar Wilde and Yukio Mishima

The grotesque and existential concerns are rarely studied alongside each other in the field of literature. History has it that the grotesque has always been associated with aspects which denote negative connotations such as deformity, death, violence or monstrosity. Meanwhile, existentialists struggle to seek the meaning of life in a world filled with pessimism. The present study concentrates on the grotesque as a mode of representation and a literary tool for fictional characters to react to existential concerns. The grotesque will be analysed alongside four ultimate existential concerns of life, as pointed out by Irvin Yalom: death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness. Textual analysis of four selected texts by Victorian author, Oscar Wilde and Post-war Japanese author Yukio Mishima namely The Canterville Ghost (1891), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1892), Confessions of a Mask (1949) and Forbidden Colours (1951) will be conducted to portray the flexibility of the grotesque as an alternative for the characters in reacting to existential concerns. Grotesque elements including misogyny, pederasty, excess and extravagance, carnivalesque, the grotesque body and narcissism will be studied alongside Yalom’s existential concerns. This will then show how the male protagonists are able to justify their sense of existence by reacting to existential concerns through grotesque-inclined reactions. The findings of this study reveal that the male protagonists from the selected texts have all undergone changes in reacting to existential concerns through their grotesque-inclined reactions. Finally, it also suggests that the grotesque can go beyond its general derogatory meaning and conventional function as a literary tool. It is because it has the ability to serve as an alternative reaction for certain individuals in confronting their existential concerns.

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