the dreaded essay.

I have just few short weeks to write a 4000+ word essay, so unfortunately I may not be making a lot of headway with my practical projects until the dreaded thing is handed in. It’s not that I don’t enjoy writing, in fact it’s the opposite, but this deadline seems to have come around at the most inconvenient time when I’m really starting to get somewhere with my projects. But, never mind - after doing a lot of research and finally choosing the essay question: “How does the grotesque challenge notions of the normative body?” I’ve decided I want to begin by exploring childhood fears of the grotesque and the abnormal by looking at fairytales and folklore, and how our own fears as adults stem from those we develop as children. I’ll start by analysing the collection of fairy tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, reading articles from child psychologists, watching films that explore a child’s imagination and fears (e.g. Guillermo del Toro's 'Pan’s Labyrinth'), looking at illustrations of fairy tales that deal with the grotesque and artists who use connotations of fairy tales and children’s fears in their own work.