1. Postmodernism
Literature produced from mid-20th century to present time
Influenced by World War II, so most scholars consider WWII as the starting point for the literary period
Not actually studied as a form until the mid- 1980s.
Suggests that the world is chaotic and that there are no universal truths.

2. Characteristics of Postmodern Lit
Fragmentation: interrupted sequence of events, character development and action. Frequently the story is not in the typical linear sequence or chronological order.
Characteristics of Postmodern Lit

3. Characteristics of Postmodern Lit
Temporal Distortion Time may also overlap, repeat, or there may seem to be multiple possibilities.

4. Characteristics of Postmodern Lit
Black Humor Writing that juxtaposes morbid & ghastly elements with comical one to underscore the senselessness or futility of life.

5. Characteristics
Metafiction is writing about writing making the artificiality of art of fiction apparent to the reader. It is often employed:
to undermine the authority of the author
for unexpected narrative shifts
to advance a story in a unique way
for emotional distance
to comment on the act of storytelling.

6. Unreliable narrator cannot always be trusted to tell the truth.
The use of improper grammar to reflect dialect
More sexuality
More use of first-person narrative to reflect the lack of universal truth and to reinforce individual truths
Often has more meaning to it than just where the story takes place; sometimes there is no clear setting at all.
Characteristics

7. Kurt Vonnegut Born: 1922, Indianapolis, Indiana Died: 2007, Manhattan Work: 14 novels, 3 short story collections, 5 plays, 5 works of non-fiction

8. WAR
At 20, he entered the army during World War II and was shipped off to Europe, where he almost immediately was captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge, and he was sent to Dresden, Germany.

9. The Bombing of Dresden, Germany
On February 13, 1945, Allied bombers destroyed the city by dropping high explosives & incendiary bombs.
The firestorm turned the non- militarized city into an inferno killing up to 60,000 civilians.
Vonnegut and his fellow POWs survived by accident because they were housed some 60 feet underground in a former meat slaughterhouse.

10. Dresden, Germany
After the bombing, Vonnegut’s job was to gather up and burn the remains of the dead. This experience marked him for life and eventually resulted in his literary masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five.
Vonnegut remarked, "There were too many corpses to bury. So instead the Germans sent in troops with flamethrowers. All these civilians' remains were burned to ashes.”

12. Slaughterhouse-Five Published in 1969 Sixth Novel
Subtitled: The Children’s Crusade or A Duty-Dance with Death
Semiautobiographical about Vonnegut’s time in WWII
Darkly satiric, comic voice made his audience laugh despite the horrors he described.

13. Later Life
In the’80s and ’90s, Vonnegut was a spokesman for the preservation of our Constitutional freedoms, nuclear arms control, and for the protection of the environment.
After 9/11/2001, Vonnegut decried the militarization of our county.

14. In the End
Kurt Vonnegut died on April 11, 2007, after a fall on the steps of his New York brownstone. He was mourned the world over as one of the great American writers of the second half of the 20th century.

15. Thematic Ideas to Consider
Human Reinvention
Relativity
Illusion of Free Will
Illusion of Chronological Time
Illusion of Institutional Religion / God
Anti-War / Anti-American
Thematic Ideas to Consider