Kurt Vonnegut s Select Novels A Study in Postmodernism

Abstract

The present thesis entitled Kurt Vonnegut s Select Novels: A Study in Post Modernism is an attempt to study the different ideas and tactics of Postmodernism used by Kurt Vonnegut in his select novels. Postmodern literature has common themes in metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and historical and political difficulties. Postmodern literature as expressed in the writings of Beckett, Robbe Grillet, Borges, Marquez, Naguib Mahfouz and Angela Carter rests on a recognition of the complex nature of reality and experience, the role of time and memory in human perception, of the self and the world as historical constructions and the problematic nature of language. newlineThe present thesis aims to study the novels of Kurt Vonnegut s in perspectives of postmodernism elements. Kurt Vonnegut was a role model for other twentieth-century postmodernist authors because of his contributions to the world via his works. His writings and ideas on postmodernism are heavily impacted by his experiences during World War II when he served in the military. His notable selected novels are Player Piano, The Sirens of Titans, Mother Night, Cat s Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions. He has given the social, cultural and political circumstances of the current world more significance. In his writings there are several instances of postmodernism. When it comes to his postmodernism, he typically looks to science and technology to solve questions about the world. newlineThe thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is introduction to the postmodernism. It depicts the concept of postmodernism which expresses the anxieties, newlineconfusion and fragmented feelings that permeate Modernism. This chapter also focuses on Kurt Vonnegut as a postmodern writer and various facets of postmodernism in his writing. He typically looks to science and technology to solve questions about the world. It decides the scope and limits present study and also clarifies the research methodology of the present study. The second