This essay attempts to illustrate the narrative techniques characteristic from postmodernist literature in Kurt Vonnegut’s work of fiction Slaughterhouse-Five as it is considered an exemplary novel in terms of postmodern fiction. In the first part of the essay, I included a brief biography of this author in order to provide a context for his writing, since there are some autobiographical facts regarding war and Vonnegut’s views on war in the novel I am focusing on in this essay. I have also added a short overview of the author’s work to illustrate this author’s importance in postmodern American fiction. Additionally, I have focused my essay in the aforementioned Vonegutt’s masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five, whose narrative techniques, especially those regarding the portrayal of time favor that the novel became one of the most popular works in postmodernist literature. In the final section of my essay, I stated my conclusion, summarizing the previously discussed narrative techniques in the usage of time in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.
Keywords: Kurt Vonnegut, postmodern, fiction, Slaughterhouse-Five, war
Postmodern literature is literature characterized by reliance on narrative techniques such as fragmentation, paradox, and the unreliable narrator; and often is (though not exclusively) defined as a style or a trend which emerged in the post–World War II era. Postmodern works are seen as a response against dogmatic following of Enlightenment thinking and Modernist approaches to literature.
The postmodern authors take the lack of originality from previous periods and works as a starting point and focus on experimenting and drawing inspiration from those texts that already exist. This quest for inspiration rather than plagiarism or copy, is a liberation for the postmodern author. We could think of the postmodern literature as a collage made out from fragments and pieces from other periods and authors but with an unique touch that gives this kind of literature a life of its own.
Postmodernism is known for its rebellious approach and willingness to test boundaries. Romanticism and then modernism had already questioned whether these ideals were possible. The difference is that postmodernists are all about embracing disorder and taking a more playful approach.
Although there is not really a fixed date when postmodern literature started, it is certain that World War II and the horror of the Holocaust had a major impact on the cultural landscape of most of the world—it influenced how people thought and wrote. There are some postmodernist (more like proto-postmodernist) texts that were elaborated before the war, but the shift between modernism and postmodernism is drastic post-1945.
Postmodernism was widely influenced by late capitalism. Ernest Mandel helped popularize the idea that capitalism comes in three stages. The third stage, late capitalism, which Madel defines as a time of “generalized universal industrialization” that began around 1945—the same year that World War II ended and postmodernism is often said to have gotten started.
Features:
Intertextuality: refers to the connections between texts, including the various ways in which one text references another (or many others). There are all kinds of techniques that authors can use in order to highlight these links, including pastiche, parody, quotes, and direct references, as well as subtler nods to other material. What these techniques have in common is that they’re examples of intertextuality.
Metafiction: The word “metafiction” points out to the kind of text that emphasizes its status as a text. Metafiction is aware of the fact that it’s fiction—some literature may aim to be naturalistic or realistic, but postmodernism rather than hiding its fictional characteristics, it flaunts them. Self-awareness is an important feature of postmodern literature.
Pastiche: is the literary equivalent of a collage. It is about creating something by drawing on what already exists. What a pastiche does is imitate other texts or genres. The postmodern author can mimic as many genres as they like.
Maximalism: it goes against the grain by embracing excess. Since postmodernism doesn’t stick to any hard and fast rules, its texts can be any length. It doesn’t stick to traditional ideas about plotting and narrative structure either, which means authors are more likely to take diversions and explore other themes and subplots.
Irony: Irony isn’t exclusive to postmodernism, but the postmodern authors excel atit and it is an important feature of the postmodern texts.
Hyperreality: concepts like originality and authenticity have been widely explored in literature , but for postmodernists, nothing’s truly original anymore. In this view, art and literature are created by reworking existing texts and ideas. This lack of authenticity or concepts like “reality” and “truth.” do not matter for postmodern authors —they take it as a given and work from there. Postmodernism can be interpreted both as a thrill and the demise of civilization
Paranoia: In order to understand the paranoia present in postmodern literature, we have to provide some socio-historical background: Postmodernism grew out of a mid-late 20th-century setting in which technology, consumerism, and the media were all growing immensely. As the world entered a new era of mass communication and technology (i.e., “technoculture”), author’s concern grew. But the postmodernists had more factors on their side: the Cold War was happening, also. So technology and a war of distrust triggered the thought that “Big Brother was watching”. The dystopian idea that you’re being controlled, that your life isn’t your own, is an important matter of concern for postmodernists, whose major characteristics involved person freedom and, even chaos. The order being imposed on the world around them—be it through technology or spies—was enough to influence greatly in their works.
Fragmentation: postmodernism embraces the idea of fragmentation and uses it to create playful texts that reflect and explore the chaos of the world. Fragmentation allows postmodern authors to play around with time and place in their works.
Most famous authors:
Kurt Vonnegut (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American postmodern author. In a career spanning over 50 years, Vonnegut published fourteen novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of non-fiction. He is most famous for his darkly satirical, best-selling novel Slaughterhouse-Five.
Samuel Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. He is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century. Beckett’s work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human existence, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour, and became increasingly minimalist in his later career. He is considered one of the last modernist/postmodern writers, and one of the key figures of the “Theatre of the Absurd”.
Don DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American postmodern novelist, playwright and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as television, nuclear war, sports, the complexities of language, performance art, the Cold War, mathematics, the advent of the digital age, politics, economics, and global terrorism. Initially a well-regarded cult writer, the publication in 1985 of White Noise brought him widespread recognition, and was followed in 1988 by Libra, a bestseller.
Paul Auster(born February 3, 1947) is an American postmodern author and director whose writing blends absurdism, existentialism,crime fiction, and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy (1987), Moon Palace (1989),The Music of Chance (1990), The Book of Illusions (2002), and The Brooklyn Follies (2005). His books have been translated into more than forty languages.
Thomas Pynchon (born May 8, 1937) is an American postmodern novelist. A MacArthur Fellow, he is noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and nonfiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, science, and mathematics. For Gravity’s Rainbow Pynchon won the 1974 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.
David Foster Wallace(February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American postmodern novelist, short story writer, and essayist, as well as a professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which was cited by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.
Postmodern Literature 