Kurt Vonnegut : The Concept Of Postmodernism

Kurt Vonnegut is one of the more prominent exponents of irony during the 1960s. Most of Vonnegut’s novel achieve to blend facts with faction, nontraditional narrative techniques yet the presence of the irony in Vonnegut’s work does not lead to the emotional detachment of the reader. Rather, the presence of strongly humanist aspect in Vonnegut’s novels works to counteract any distancing effects the irony might have.

Oscar Wilde, an acclaimed Irish Poet, novelist, dramatist and critic once aptly commented, “Men become old, but they never become good”. The philosophical aspect of this quote relies on the basis that human beings are inherently malevolent. Through his pessimistic perspective, Wilde clearly captures the ill-disposed mindset of mankind. Moreover, there are various deductive arguments that discredit the optimistic depiction of human nature. One of the prime examples can be found in Kurt Vonnegut’s literature. In Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat's Cradle, through the illustration of his characters, the author symbolizes the four elements of human fallibility.

Kurt Vonnegut once said, “We are who we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” In this case, Vonnegut pretends to be science fiction writer, when in reality, he is writing about a million other things - kindness, peace, hope, religion, the human spirit - in which he has no obligation to be careful about who he pretends to be. Vonnegut’s work goes far beyond the traditional realm of a fiction writer, propelling him to be a form of a legend within the literary world. Kurt Vonnegut should be considered a classic author because of the lasting impact of his works, which are still in print today, the breakthroughs he’s made in his genre, and his enduring popularity among critics.

Postmodernism is a term which is highly contested in the sociological world, where it is used to indicate a significant detachment from modernism. It is easier to give the uses of the term; ‘to give a name to the present historical period, to name a specific style in arts and architecture and to name a point of rupture or disjuncture in epistemology’ (Buchanan, 2010). For this,

This conversation really stood out to me while I was reading the chapter. Kurt Vonnegut was able to connect the dreadful history of our past with important current problems of our present. In this time period of this conversation, Billy is with his wife, Valencia Pilgrim, at their honeymoon. Throughout the book, Valencia is described as an extremely good-natured woman. However, she is slightly large in size and is extremely conscious of it. As you can see, despite the fact that the book was written in the mid-1900s, beauty standards have been imposed on women since the beginning of time.

“No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat’s Cradle is nothing but a band of X’s between someone’s hands and little kid’s look and look at all those X’s… No damn cat and no damn cradle,” Vonnegut writes is his appropriately titled book Cat’s Cradle. A cat’s cradle is a string trick we all grew up learning and seeing, and it is just as Vonnegut described, nothing. Everyday we experience things like a cat’s cradle; we experience insignificant objects, feelings, or idols that we base our life on. We base and change our lives off of things with no real significance. Kurt Vonnegut’s novels Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five demonstrate the ineptness of the human race to base our life and happiness

…..is a postmodern text as it emphasises the form rather than the content. It demonstrates a belief that language does not simply mirror the world, but aids us in reconstruction. Postmodernism is sceptical about the universal truth as well as the language that claims to be authoritative and objective. The stylistic technique of a metafiction and intertextuality and reinforce readers that they are not reading a universal truth of perspective or experience, but a variety of texts

Postmodernism in a nutshell. When was it created? How did it fail or did it? Is there redemption in postmodernism?

Kurt Vonnegut was a man of some weird ideas, and he shows through his characters in all his stories. Kurt’s satire works so well because he used personal events that he added to all the elements in his works. Vonnegut’s experience as a soldier in WWII allowed him to express the vicious reality of government, war, violence and everything else that comes with it. “Slaughterhouse-five,” “Harrison Bergeron”, and “All the Kings Horse’s,” are three texts one begins to notice Vonnegut’s use of satire. One will also notice how he has used many different methods to show satire such as irony and tone.

vonnegut could have made his literary work much more appealing when he had made this short story as a tease to the public and see if it was positively reviewed by the readers, then deciding to make it into a trilogy or a novel. if he had made this into a novel, backing it up with a great story behind the hg or what happened during the old ages that Mr Bergeron mentioned where everyone was competitively climbing each other the story could have a much bigger impact to readers of all

In his 1965 essay Science Fiction , Vonnegut stated that he learned in 1952 from the reviewers of Player Piano, that he was a science fiction writer” he states: “I learned,” in 1952 from the reviewers of Player Piano, “that I was a science fiction writer [. . .]. I have been a sore headed occupant of the file drawer labeled science fiction ever since, and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal” (“Science Fiction” 1). He has been a sore headed occupant of the file drawer labeled science fiction ever since, and he would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal. Far from being a science fiction writer, Vonnegut is a writer whose

The Postmodernist movement begun after World War II in which, high and low culture are questionable in the view of society and Art. The postmodernist movement in literature creates a new set of ideals for fiction, such as the metafiction, the fable like representation in novels, the pastiche, irony, and satire. Fredric Jameson speaks about the movement and its theory in his essay “Postmodernism and Consumer Society”. He questions postmodernism in society as it creates the new societal norm of popular culture. On the other hand, Jean Baudrillard analyzes the simulacra of postmodernism in “The Precession of Simulacra”. Baudrillard speaks of the “truth” and “reality” also as a questionable representation for the reader. Yet, both critics

When I was fourteen years old I bought a copy of “Slaughter-house Five” at a bookstore in Lexington Kentucky. I was in Kentucky visiting my sister with my parents and we had stopped at the bookstore on our way back home. I was not a fast reader but I read the entire book on the car trip. From then on I was hooked on Kurt Vonnegut. What I liked about him wasn’t what I perceived to be his Sci-fi bent or his sarcastic tone, although to be honest it didn’t hurt. What I loved, and still love, about his books is his honesty. Of all the authors that I have read in my life, Vonnegut has always seemed to me to be the most honest, the anger that his narrators feel in his books is his anger, and it’s his frustration. Those books, “Slaughter-house

Postmodernist Features in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle Cat's Cradle is a book, which enables many points for literary discussions. One possible topic of them could be the postmodernist features in this book. In this examination Ihab Hassan's essay "Toward a Concept of Postmodernism" was used as a source of secondary literature for defining of postmodernist features. The most visible and prevalent features are postmodernist metonymy, treatment of the character, dynamic tension, anarchy and a postmodernist look at religion as a whole. To put Vonnegut's Cradle into a definite time span, let me start with a bit of personal data about the author.

Essentially, postmodernism is a very unique literary style. This is because, there are not many boundaries when it comes to these types of works. The themes involved within postmodernist works are often unusual and off-the-wall. By using aspects such as unreliable narrators, maximalism, and pastiche, authors within the field of postmodernism are able to create works that bend reality and provide very unique stories that intertwine countless themes. Within other genres of literature, pessimism and optimism often play important roles in regards to character definition and plot progression. In postmodernism, cynical pessimism seems to be an integral theme in most works. For example, in Angels in America by Tony Kushner, the author intertwines pessimistic characters with religion in order to create a truly unique and spiritual setting.