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Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is considered to be one of the leading figures of American literary postmodernism. All of his books are pointed to as clear examples of post-modern writing.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born in 1. Since the 150s he has published numerous novels and short stories, two plays and several works of non-fiction. All his books are strongly ironical and satirical, full of black humour and absurdity. Most of them are affected by his war experience, for example Mother Night, Hocus Pocus, or Slaughterhouse-Five. His books have become popular all over the world for their unusual language and composition, together with the way Vonnegut deals with their topics.
Postmodernism is a term that has been used since 150s. Nowadays it is connected with a wide-ranging cultural movement, which looks sceptically at the principles that have worked in Western thought and social life for the last few centuries - religion, education, philosophy, or government. In literature, art, music, and many other areas it makes use of irony, self-mockery, parody, black humour, allusiveness, play with language, labyrinthine plot, fragmented characters, and so on. These features, and several others, will be shown on Vonnegut s short novel Slaughterhouse-Five.
Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children s Crusade, A Duty Dance with Death, was written in 16. It is a very personal novel, which draws upon Vonnegut's own experience. He served in the United States Army during the Second World War. He was captured by the Germans and taken to Dresden, where he witnessed the fire-bombing and complete destruction of the town on 1th February 145.
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From the first pages of the book we can notice so called "writing about writing" throughout the book the two narrations are used personal (Vonnegut s own story about writing the book, where he describes his temptations to write about Dresden and his efforts to finally produce it),
"Nerad bych vám øíkal, kolik mne tato všivá knížka stála penìz a úzkosti a èasu."
and impersonal (the story of Billy Pilgrim who, similarly to the author, fights in WW, is taken prisoner by the Germans and witnesses the fire-storming of Dresden).
In the text a kind of a refrain is used every single death in the book is commented on with "tak to chodí" ("so it goes") an empty phrase, an (ironic) sigh of compassion, words that the Tralfamadorians say about their death friends
"Její matka byla zpopelnìna v drážïansk m ohniv m pekle. Tak to chodí."
"... Paul Lazarro mìl asi pùl kila diamantù a smaragdù a rubínù a tak. Sebral je mrtvým v drážïanských sklepích. Tak to chodí."
Irony, or the figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words used, is employed throughout the story, much in the postmodern tradition. It is ironic that Billy knows ahead of time what each of the moments of his life are going to be as well as the knowledge that these moments are inevitable. Vonnegut lets us share this type of experience with Billy through the character of Edgar Derby, an elderly man that befriends Billy during the war, and who, we are reminded constantly, right up until it happens, will eventually be executed by the Germans. Most of the moments in Billy's life share in this dark irony Edgar Derby survives the bombing of Dresden, only to be executed for stealing a teapot;
"A nìkde tam byl chudák støedoškolský uèitel Edgar Derby pøistižen s èajníkem, který sebral v katakombách. Byl zatèen pro rabování. Byl souzen a zastøelen.
Tak to chodí."
Billy's wife dies of carbon monoxide poisoning on the way to the hospital to visit him, after he is the only person to survive a plane crash that kills her father
"...Všichni kromì Billyho se zabili. Tak to chodí.
Zatímco se Billy ve vermontsk nemocnici sbíral k životu, jeho manželka se nešastnou náhodou otrávila kyslièníkem uhelnatým. Tak to chodí."
Another feature typical for postmodern literature is "time-switching". Billy Pilgrim has a unique ability to become unstuck in time , which means that he can uncontrollably drift from one part of his life to another. The whole book is organized in the same way Billy moves in time. It consists of numerous sections and paragraphs put together in no chronological order, seemingly at random. In one moment we see Billy going downstairs to the kitchen
"Billy Pilgrim se šoural po svých promodralých a slonovinových nohách dolù. Vešel do kuchynì, kde mìsíc pøitáhl jeho pozornost k poloprázdn láhvi šampaòsk ho na kuchyòsk m stole..."
There he is "watching" a war film from its end to the beginning, and again in a normal way
"Americká letadla, plná dìr a ranìných a mrtvol, se pozpátku vznesla z anglick ho letištì. Nad Francií se k nim pozpátku pøipojilo nìkolik nìmeckých stíhaèek a z nìkterých letounù a jejich posádek vysály kulky a støepiny."...
Up comes a flying saucer and Billy is taken on board, watched, and anaesthetized. He comes round not in his kitchen, but in a German goods-wagon, back in WW
"Ohromn zrychlení talíøe, opouštìjícího Zemi, zkroutilo Billyho klimbající schránku, zkøivilo mu oblièej, pøemístilo ho v èase, poslalo zpátky do války. Když opìt nabyl vìdomí, nebyl už v l tajícím talíøi. Byl opìt v dobytèáku køižujícím Nìmeckem."
All these events happened within three pages. The quick changing of situations war, Billy's home and family, Tralfamador makes the plot complicated and difficult to follow.
Apart from "time-switching" we can also notice the frequent place-switching. This world is met by another world, the planet of alien beings Tralfamadorians, who kidnap Billy and keep him in their zoo, where he lives with a beautiful movie star Montana Wildback
"Montana byla omámena silnými sedativy. Tralfamadoøan s plynovými maskami ji vnesli do kopule, uložili do Billyho žlut lenošky, vytratili se pøetlakovou kabinou. Mohutný dav venku šílel nadšením. Všechny dosavadní rekordy návštìvnosti zoo padly. Všichni obyvatel planety chtìli vidìt, jak se Pozemšan páøí."
This situation, together with typical short dialogues and quick action, are similar to those used in science fiction and comic books. Vonnegut, however, doesn't take the sci-fi elements with the same seriousness as the other sci-fi writers. Science fiction is a popular source for postmodern pastiche a kind of permutation of the components of a style.
In postmodern texts there are often names that are symbolical in some way. The main character of this book, Billy Pilgrim, is a real "pilgrim in time" and space.
Intertextuality, or the use of literary allusions quotations, paraphrases or parody is also typical for post-modern writing. When consulting his novel with an old friend O Hara, the author quotes a book by Charles Mackay dealing with a children's crusade (Children's Crusade is a subtitle of Vonnegut s novel), a short prayer by a Christian philosopher and priest Friedrich Pettinger is quoted twice (for the first time it appears on the wall of Billy s surgery , for the second time we can read these words inside a medal between the breasts of Montana Wildback ). Also some characters of the book come from Vonnegut s previous books, as is Kilgore Trout, a sci-fi author and, similarly like Billy Pilgrim, a partly autobiographical character; Mr. Eliot Rosewater, constantly drunk soldier who is fond of science fiction (in God Bless You, Mr.Rosewater); the Tralfamadorians, etc.
From the examples introduced in this essay it is clear that Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is an outstanding representative of post-modern literature. In his novel we can see many features typical for the style of postmodernism intertextuality, irony, time and place switching, symbolical characters, examples of writing about writing, or kinds of a refrain.
Bibliography
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. Jatka è.5 (Slaughterhouse-Five). Trans. Jaroslav Koøán. Praha Mladá fronta 175.
Lewis, Barry. "Postmodernism and Literature." The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism. Ed. Stuart Sim. London Routledge 001.
Ruland, Richard and Malcolm Bradbury. From Puritanism to Postmodernism. New York Viking Penguin 11.
http//www.birmingham.ac.uk/english/bibliography/work/bp/laura/postmodern/, .1.00
http//www.etsu.edu/writing/mo&pomo/vonnegut/
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