Abstract
Kurt Vonnegut's Bluebeard depicts the psychic transformation of the protagonist, Rabo Karabekian. Karabekian evolves as the new renaissance hero, who interacts with and learns from female characters; this new hero acknowledges the significance of nourishment and the hope of rebirth. The protagonist's transformation enables him to confront and heal his traumatic past and give birth to artistic creations leading to a new self-identity. Karabekian's transformation and regenerating experience can be theoretically framed by Mikhail Bakhtin's idea of grotesque realism. As a site of the carnival-grotesque spirit, Karabekian's last painting allows his personal experience to be merged with communal/collective ones. In doing so, this painting elicits multiple interpretations via interaction with the viewers, defying any authoritative or official version of meanings and subverting social and artistic hierarchies. Such social interactions are carefully laid within a new, playful paradigm of a children's game and the mythical Bluebeard motif. Not only does Bluebeard show Karabekian's transformation as a renaissance, but it also provides for the readers a means of participating in the same process of regeneration and invites them to celebrate the transformation.
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