The Art of Monstrosity: Shannon’s Monstrous Body Transformation in Palahniuk’s Invisible Monster
-
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30739/dej.v5i1.3804Keywords:
Abberanormia, A factor of Monstrous Body Transformation, A Kind of Monstrous Body, Destroyed Face, Monstrous Body TransformationAbstract
The novel Invisible Monster by Chuck Palahniuk reflects the phenomenon of body transformation, such as mutilation, which is considered by society as a deviation from the norm and is called a monstrous body. The discourse is expressed through the character Shannon who carries out facial mutilation; thus, providing space to better understand the phenomenon as an effort to deconstruct established norms. This study aims to investigate the form and factors of monstrous body transformation. To achieve this goal, the researcher used a descriptive qualitative approach by applying two theories, namely Steinhoff's Body Transformation theory and Bakhtin's Grotesque Body theory. This study found a monstrous body form in the form of a crushed face, experienced by Shannon. The crushed face was because Shannon shot herself in the face. Therefore, Shannon's face was destroyed, her jaw was open, her tongue was sticking out, and she continued to bleed and ooze. The crushed face deviated greatly from society's norms of ideal beauty; thus, it was called a monstrous body. Then, this study identified the factors of Shannon's monstrous body transformation, namely abberanormia, which was developed from the Body Transformation theory. Abberanormia was identified from Shannon's condition of wanting to break the norms of beauty not because she was unable to meet them, but because she had reached those standards and felt bored.
Downloads
References
Ambarini, A. S., Harjito, I. K. I. P., & Umaya, N. M. (2010). Pelatihan Kajian Analisis Sastra Membangun Keterampilan Diri dengan Kemampuan Menganalisis Imajinasi Sastra Bagi Mahasiswa IKIP PGRI Semarang. E- Dimas: Jurnal Pengabdian kepada Masyarakat, 1(2), 80-92: 2528-5041.
Anggito, A., & Setiawan, J. (2018). Metodologi penelitian kualitatif. Sukabumi: Jejak Publisher.
Barbaruk, Y. V. (2023). Biopolitical studies and research of biopolitics | ??????????????? ???????????? ? ???????????? ???????????. Filosofskii Zhurnal, 16(3), 147–162. https://doi.org/10.21146/2072-0726-2023-16-3-147-162
Berry, L. (2020). The world inverted: Chuck Palahniuk's fiction as a challenge to neoliberal capitalism: a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand (Doctoral dissertation, Massey University).
Bivens, K. M., & Cole, K. (2018). The Grotesque Protest in Social Media as Embodied, Political Rhetoric. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 42(1), 5–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859917735650
Blackman, L. (2021). The body: The key concepts. Routledge.
Butler, D. (2012). Hamlet, carnival, and the Playboy of the Western World. Irish University Review, 42(2), 236–253. https://doi.org/10.3366/iur.2012.0032
Campbell, E. (2011). The cultural politics of justice: Bakhtin, stand-up comedy and post-9/11 securitization. Theoretical Criminology, 15(2), 159–177. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480610387967
Ceci, M. (2023). The Carnival of Populism: Grotesque Leadership. In Value Inquiry Book Series (Vol. 389). https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004548817_012
Cernat, C., & Birman, J. (2018). Caring for those who see themselves as ugly | La prise en charge des représentations laides de soi. Topique, 144(3), 125–139. https://doi.org/10.3917/top.144.0125
Davi, E. H. D., & de Toledo Bruns, M. A. (2017). To get on the heels: Body building transvestite from the Merleau-Ponty’s perspective | Para ficar em cima do salto: a construção do corpo travesti na perspectiva Merleau-Pontyana. Revista Da Abordagem Gestaltica, 23(2), 158–166. https://doi.org/10.18065/rag.2017v23n2.3
Faruk. (2024). Metode Penelitian Sastra Sebuah Penjelajahan Awal. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.
Fuentes Fuentes, C. (2021). Community and violence: the reinvention of masculinities in chuck Palahniuk’s narrative.
Hellberg, S. (2018). The biopolitics of water: Governance, scarcity and populations. In The Biopolitics of Water: Governance, Scarcity and Populations. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315183251
Horváth, G. S. (2016). From phenomenology to literary anthropology: Bakhtin’s grotesque as poetics of the production of meaning. Dostoevsky Journal, 17(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1163/23752122-01701002
Hutchison, P. J. (2022). Celebrating a carnival of insults: Don Rickles meets Mikhail Bakhtin. Comedy Studies, 13(1), 2-14.
LaMarre, A., Rice, C., & Jankowski, G. (2017). Eating Disorder Prevention as Biopedagogy. Fat Studies, 6(3), 241–254. https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2017.1286906
Lilja, M., & Vinthagen, S. (2014). Sovereign power, disciplinary power and biopower: resisting what power with what resistance?. Journal of political power, 7(1), 107-126.
Lorr, M. J. (2020). Sociology: An Exploration into the Discipline’s Relationship with Leadership Education. New Directions for Student Leadership, 2020(165), 61–71. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.20369
McCaw, D. (2019). Corpos em Bakhtin / Bakhtin’s Bodies. Bakhtiniana, 14(3), 35–56. https://doi.org/10.1590/2176-457341642
Moffat, N. J. (2015). Monstrative acts and becoming-monster: on identity, bodies, and the feminine other.
Monocello, L. T., & Dressler, W. W. (2020). Flower boys and muscled men: Comparing South Korean and American male body ideals using cultural domain analysis. Anthropology & medicine, 27(2), 176-191.
Narwani, N., & Vaidya, M. (2024). A Carnivalesque Exploration of Hosseini’s Select Novels. Forum for World Literature Studies, 16(3), 521–539.
Özyön, A. (2023). Grotesque Body Image and Carnivalesque Elements in Sevim Burak’s Play Here Is the Head, Here Is the Body, Here Are the Wings | Sevim Burak’?n ??te Ba?, ??te Gövde, ??te Kanatlar Adl? Oyununda Grotesk Beden ?mgesi ve Karnavalesk Unsurlar. Tiyatro Elestirmenligi ve Dramaturji Bolumu Dergisi, 2023(37), 13–23. https://doi.org/10.26650/jtcd.1307072
Palahniuk, C. (1999). Invisible Monster. New York: W. W. Norton & Company
Putrayasa, I. B. (2017). Literature as media education nation character values. International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Culture, 3(3), 1-9.
Quid, P. J. (2013). Women and Sociology: How the Structure of Society Affects Women. In Women’s Work: A Survey of Scholarship By and About Women. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203047156-15
Richardson, N. (2016). Transgressive Bodies: Representations in Film and Popular Culture. In Transgressive Bodies: Representations in Film and Popular Culture. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315550022
Rodney, A. (2021). The rise of the blogspert: biopedagogy, self-knowledge, and lay expertise on women’s healthy living blogs. Social Theory and Health, 19(2), 155–171. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41285-019-00095-z
Ruin, S. (2017). Many different bodies?: An empirical study of body images of physical education teachers against the background of the inclusion discourse | Vielfältige Körper?: Eine empirische Untersuchung zu Körperbildern von Sportlehrkräften vor dem Hintergrund des In. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research, 47(3), 221–231. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-017-0452-5
Salgado, B. M. (2023). We are all living in the world that is Brandy Alexander: hyperreality, beauty and monstrosity in Invisible Monsters.
?arkdemir, E. (2014). Desiring machines/bodies without organs: The concept of body in Chuck Palahniuks Fight Club, ?nvisible Monsters and Choke (Master's thesis, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü).
Scheel, S. (2020). Biopolitical bordering: Enacting populations as intelligible objects of government. European Journal of Social Theory, 23(4), 571–590. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431019900096
Steinhoff, H. (2015). Transforming bodies: Makeovers and Monstrosities in American culture. Springer.
Termizi, A. A. (2015). “Un-romanticized” love in anthony and cleopatra and the taming of the shrew. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 15(2), 191–201. https://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2015-1502-13
Trevarthen, J. R. (2023). Invisible Monsters: Chuck Palahniuk’s Transgressive Look at a Hyperrealized Society.
Van Rees, C. J. (1983). How a literacy work becomes a masterpiece: On the threefold selection practised by literary criticism. Poetics, 12(4-5), 397-417:0304- 422X, Retrieved September 25th 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0304422X83900153
Varea, V., & Pang, B. (2018). Using visual methodologies to understand pre-service Health and Physical Education teachers’ subjectivities of bodies. Sport, Education and Society, 23(5), 394–406. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2016.1228625
Wang, H.-Y. (2024). Reviving Mikhail Bakhtin’s Concept of the Grotesque Body and its Implications of “Transgender”: News Representation of “Otherness” of Renyao (The Prodigy of the Human) TSENG Chiu Huang as a Case | ???????????????????????????????????????????????. Mass Communication Research, 161, 47–111. https://doi.org/10.30386/MCR.202410.0019
Wilmer, S. E., & Žukauskaite, A. (2015). Resisting biopolitics: Philosophical, political, and performative strategies. In Resisting Biopolitics: Philosophical, Political, and Performative Strategies. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315764955
Woods, O. (2024). Grotesque Mat(t)er: Materiality and Matrilineality in Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet (2020). In Progressive Intertextual Practice in Modern and Contemporary Literature. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003441199-7
Wright, J., & Halse, C. (2014). The healthy child citizen: Biopedagogies and web-based health promotion. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 35(6), 837–855. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2013.800446
Zaidan, Y. F. (2020). Relasi Tubuh dan Kekuasaan: Kritik Sandra Lee Bartky Terhadap Pemikiran Michel Foucault. JAQFI: Jurnal Aqidah Dan Filsafat Islam, 5(2), 134-153.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Citation Check
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Iftinan Rose Putri Safana -, Novi Siti Kussuji Indrastuti
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
