Blog #3: How do the Picaresque Genre and Etchings affect the Representation of War?
If someone asks you to describe a war, what would you say? Well, if we consult a history book, war is often portrayed as a grand event governed by military tactics and elaborate war plans. Educational genres, like history books, focus mainly on the res gestae, or the disconnected, factual account of the event that occurred. History books would tell us facts, like why the war started, which events occurred, and who won the war. This detached representation of war is logical, but never really encompasses human suffering on the ground level. War is the epitome of human devastation, but this crucial aspect of our history is often left out of the history books. If we are to understand how war affects humanity on a deeper level, we must consult a medium that delves deeper into the ugliness and imperfection of human suffering.
The picaresque novel shifts this view from above to a view from below which embraces the realism and imperfection of the human complex. This unique genre is characterized as a satirical and humorous fiction-narrative that follows a lower-class “hero” throughout several adventures. According to Professor Newman, the picaresque acts as “the underbelly of an epic” and thus allows us to experience the gruesome aspects of war.
In Grimmelshausen’s The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus, we experience war through the eyes of a simpleton. We witness the suffering of peasants and are constantly reminded of the abuse of force against the helpless and weak.
“Meanwhile the soldiers tied the other four peasants […] they took yards and yard of fuse cord, made knots in it, and neatly ran the knotted cord through the cleft of their behinds until they drew blood […] The peasants screamed like pigs, but a lot of good it did them! The soldiers didn’t stop until they struck the bone” (Grimmelshausen 24).
Etchings
Etchings bring us even closer to human suffering. These graphic pictures are characterized by “violent contrasts of dark and light, close-ups, hallucinatory distortions, and emotion-laden figures” and often express the “condemnation of war” (Wolfthal 1). In the collection of etchings found in Jacques Callot’s Miseries of War, we become immersed in human suffering. Both the Small Miseries and the Large Miseries depict the crimes, punishments, and misfortunes committed by soldiers. Though only sketched in black and white, these etchings provide prevailing evidence of human injustice and were “clearly designed to inflame political passions during the Thirty Years War” (Wolfthal 1). Etchings do not glorify the leaders or heroes of war, but emphasize the daily brutality suffered by the peasants.
Both the genre of picaresque and the art of etchings are powerful at depicting the gruesome realities of war that are often over-looked in a historical text book. By introducing a zoomed-in perspective, these mediums connect us to the ordinary people affected by war and allow us to experience the battle, destruction, and suffering on the ground level. Though we may think all wars are different, war will always be defined by the human suffering we find at its core.
Works Cited
von Grimmelshausen, Hans Jacob Christoffel. The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus. Trans. George Schulz-Behrend. 2nd Revised Edition. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 1993.
Wolfthal, Diane. “Jacques Callot’s Miseries of War.” Art Bulletin 59.2 (1977): 222. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Dec. 2014.
