The imaginary of the decaying corpse: from the Dance of Death to the roman-charogne

Abstract

The image of the human corpse throughout its post-mortem decomposition has become part of the cultural and artistic demonstrations in the West, beginning with the appearance of the macabre themes in the Late Middle Ages, especially the "Dance of Death". A true obsession in the medieval times, the putrid body would reappear as an aesthetic object in the horror literature, also known as "gothic". The so called roman-charogne, literary style that abuses of macabre references, outstands within this production, exploring aspects of the decaying corpse as never seen before. This article aims to point out these examples, problematizing the presence of the rotten dead body that would answer specific demands of those times.

Keywords
Macabre; Dance of Death; roman-charogne; Romanticism; History of death