GROTESQUE HUMOR IN PINERA,VIRGILIO SHORT-STORIES

Throughout the years, psychologists and sociologists, among others, have viewed humor as one of the most effective mechanisms available to people to cope with and overcome imposed internal and external pressures. While humor serves as an escape device in the presence of an adverse condition, it also offers a way of asserting one's position in the world. Many writers have effectively used this device to denounce bourgeois views and to offer a way of overcoming overwhelming political and social pressures. In Latin America, one of the writers who has distinguished himself by using humor, particularly grotesque black humor; as a coping device is Virgilio Pihera (1912–1979). Born in Cuba, Pihera defended his right to stay in his country despite being persecuted by Fidel Castro's regime. Feeling as an outcast in his own homeland for not openly exalting the Cuban Revolution, Pinera creates grotesque humorous situations in which people, in order to maintain sanity, make the most of an alienated condition. Conversely, grotesque humor and its techniques in Pinera's writings also offer a way to assert one's position in the world and provide a way to reconcile man with the universe. © 1992, Walter de Gruyter