Artsculture News

The Significance of Bodily Functions in Literature.

Bodily functions are often overlooked in literature and poetry, but for some writers, they drive action and create memorable characters. Ottessa Moshfegh and Karl Ove Knausgaard are two contemporary writers who pay close attention to these matters, with Moshfegh's descriptions often being moments of protest and depravity, while Knausgaard's tend towards the mundane. Eliminations add chaos, comedy, disgust, shame, irony, urgency, and anguish to narrative, and are as much a part of life as sex. Fiction that avoids or denies feces is considered kitsch.