THE ‘ DERMOGROTESQUE’ BODY: ACNE, ALIENATION, AND AESTHETICS IN BUKOWSKI’S HAM ON RYE

This article examines Charles Bukowski’s Ham on Rye through the proposed framework of the Dermogrotesque which positions the skin as the primary site where social, medical, and aesthetic meanings intersect and are inscribed. By focusing on Chinaski’s acne, the analysis draws on Foucault, Siebers, and other critical theories of embodiment to trace how visibility becomes a conduit for shame, exclusion, and epistemic violence, situating Bukowski’s work within conversations on disability, aesthetic capitalism, and the socio-medical gaze. The study argues that the novel’s episodic, anti-teleological structure is inseparable from its dermogrotesque embodiment. Chinaski’s skin cannot be narratively redeemed, and Bukowski refuses the coherence, transformation, or moral clarity often expected of illness narratives. He produces a form of narrative that is ethically and formally consistent with chronic stigma – fragmented, flat, and unresolved. This reading demonstrates how Ham on Rye contributes to medical humanities by revealing the narrative and affective implications of living in a grotesquely visible skin.