Slaughterhouse-Five (by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.)

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. - vŏnˈəgət 1922–, American novelist, b. Indianapolis. After serving in World War II, he worked as a police reporter. With wry charm and black humor, his novels protest the horrors of the 20th cent. His books feature fantastic plots, involving trips in outer space, time faults, and apocalyptic destruction. Among his novels are Player Piano Read More...

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Slaughterhouse-Five (by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.)

1 .

The Arbitrary Cycle of Slaughterhouse-Five: A Relation of Form to Theme, in Critique
by Wayne D. McGinnis. 14 pgs.

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2 .

Kurt Vonnegut: A Critical Companion (Chap. 8 "Slaughterhouse-Five")
by Thomas F. Marvin. 169 pgs.

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With a career spanning 50 years, Kurt Vonnegut is one of the most prolific and popular American writers of the 20th century. Though his works have often met with mixed reviews, and have been difficult to categorize, his status of cultural icon and one of the most important contemporary novelists is well established. This critical companion, perfect for students, skillfully guides readers through seven of Vonnegut's most important novels including Player Piano (1952), Mother Night (1961), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Slaughterhouse Five (1969). A full chapter is devoted to each work, with clear analysis of plot, character development, thematic concerns, symbolism, and a close critical reading. A chapter on the life of Kurt Vonnegut gives an up-to-date biography, with interesting details relating the facts of his life to his writings. The Literary Contexts section, devoted to examining issues of genre, influences, and themes in Vonnegut's writing, adds to a fuller understanding of the man and his literary works.

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Title Page

Contents

Series Foreword

1: The Life of Kurt Vonnegut

2: Literary Contexts

3: Player Piano

4: The Sirens of Titan

5: Mother Night

6: Cat’s Cradle

7: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

8: Slaughterhouse-Five

9: Bluebeard

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers
3 .

The Modern American Novel of Violence ("Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five" begins on p. 100)
by Patrick W. Shaw. 220 pgs.

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"An addendum to W. M. Frohock's 'The Novel of Violence in America, 1920-1950' (1950), Shaw's volume further defines violence and provides lengthy essays on a novel by each of eight authors not covered by Frohock—Porter, Capote. Vonnegut, Doctorow, McCarthy, Morrison, Selby, and Ellis. . . . Students and scholars dealing with any of the writers Shaw covers will appreciate his detailed essays on specific novels. Recommended for libraries supporting coursework in the modern novel at the upper-division undergraduate level and above."—Choice

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Contents

Introduction

William Faulkner's Light in August

James M. Cain's the Postman Always Rings Twice

Katherine Anne Porter's Noon Wine

Ernest Hemingway's for Whom the Bell Tolls

Truman Capote's in Cold Blood

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five

E. L. Doctorow's Billy Bathgate

Cormac Mccarthy's Blood Meridian

Toni Morrison's Beloved

Hubert Selby, Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn and Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho

Summary Conclusions

Works Cited
4 .

Kurt Vonnegut: Images and Representations ("In Search of Slaughterhouse-Five" begins on p. 135)
by Marc Leeds, Peter J. Reed. 204 pgs.

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Since the publication of his first short stories in the 1950s, Kurt Vonnegut has enjoyed much popular acclaim and has, since the 1970s, gained growing amounts of attention from the scholarly community. In the course of his career, he has become increasingly concerned with visual images. While such imagery occurs in his short fiction and novels, he has also written plays, in which ideas are visually represented on the stage. In recent years, he has devoted more and more of his time and energy to graphic art, producing paintings that are then silk screened. The contributors to this volume look at the visual images created by Vonnegut in his literary art, along with the images and representations of his thought that increasingly are being brought to life in other media.

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Title Page

Copyright Acknowledgments

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Divine Stupidity of Kurt Vonnegut: Portrait of the Novelist as Bridge over Troubled Water

Hurting 'Til It Laughs: The Painful-Comic Science Fiction Stories of Kurt Vonnegut

NOTES

WORKS CITED

It's All Play-Acting: Authorship and Identity in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut

WORKS CITED

The Paradox of "Awareness" and Language in Vonnegut's Fiction

NOTES

WORKS CITED

Kurt Vonnegut's Bitter Fool: Kilgore Trout

WORKS CITED

Mother Night: Who's Pretending?

WORKS CITED

Mother Night: Fiction into Film

Vonnegut on Film

WORKS CITED

The Morning after Mother Night

The Boys of Mother Night

Pilgrim's Process

In Search of Slaughterhouse-Five

NOTES

Unstuck in Time: Simultaneity as a Foundation for Vonnegut's Chrono-Synclastic Infundibula and other Nonlinear Time Structures

WORKS CITED

The Apotheosis of Philanthropy: Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

WORKS CITED

Kurt and Joe: The Artistic Collaboration of Kurt Vonnegut and Joe Petro III

NOTE

More Graphics by Kurt Vonnegut

Selected Bibliography

Index

About the Editors and Contributors
5 .

Insanity as Redemption in Contemporary American Fiction: Inmates Running the Asylum (Chap. 4 "Pilgrim's Regress: Slaughterhouse-Five")
by Barbara Tepa Lupack. 246 pgs.

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: Inmates Running the Asylum: the Individual versus the Institution

Chapter 2: Seeking a Sane Asylum: Catch-22

Chapter 3: Hail to the Chief: One Flew over the Cukoo's Nest

Chapter 4: Pilgrim's Regress: Slaughterhouse-Five

Chapter 5: Happening by Chance: Being There

Chapter 6: When Dark Gods Prey: Sophie's Choice

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index
6 .

Classic Cult Fiction: A Companion to Popular Cult Literature ("Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death" begins on p. 213)
by Thomas Reed Whissen. 324 pgs.

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Classic Cult Fiction is a history, analysis, and reference guide to books that have become "bibles" to generations of Europeans and Americans over the past 200 years--books like The Catcher in the Rye. Fearlessly taking on "canon formation," Whissen identifies the top 50 classic cult books, first presenting an informed and witty interpretation of the phenomenon and its characteristics with examples from different cultures and periods. The individual works are each discussed relative to time and place, impact, and audience psychology and analyzed in terms of common cult attributes. A chronological listing of cult fiction adds a number of titles not chosen for the top 50.

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Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Cult Classics

Against Nature (A Rebours)

Animal Farm

Another Roadside Attraction

Axel

Been Down So Long It Looks like Up to Me

The Bell Jar

Brave New World

A Canticle for Leibowitz

The Catcher in the Rye

Catch-22

A Clockwork Orange

The Day of the Locust

Demian

Dune

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The Fountainhead

Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

The Great Gatsby

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Killer Inside Me

Lady Chatterley's Lover

Lolita

Look Homeward, Angel

Lord of the Flies

The Lord of the Rings

Lost Horizon

Lucky Jim

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

On the Road

The Outsider

The Outsiders

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

René

A Separate Peace

Siddhartha

Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death

The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden Des Jungen Werthers)

The Stand

Steppenwolf

The Stranger

Stranger in a Strange Land

The Sun Also Rises

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

This Side of Paradise

Time and Again

Trout Fishing in America

2001: A Space Odyssey

Walden Two

Warlock

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Chronological Listing of Cult Fiction

Works Cited

Bibliography of Primary Works: First and Current Editions

Books for Further Reading

Index

About the Author
7 .

"It Made Me Think, Seeing Myself Like That": Affective Literary Representations of the Inferior Masculine Self, or Good-Bye, Billy Pilgrim, in The Journal of Men's Studies
by Terry Lee. 14 pgs.

Journal Article

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8 .

Opposing Censorship in the Public Schools: Religion, Morality, and Literature (Chap. 6 "Religion and Morality in Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut")
by June Edwards. 154 pgs.

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

I: The Censorship Debate Regarding Public Schools

1: The Debate Over Government and Religion

2: The Debate Over Humanism and Democracy

3: The Debate Over the Purpose of Teaching Literature

4: The Debate Over Biblical Interpretation

5: The Debate Over Morality in Literature

II: Religion and Morality in Selected Challenged Literature

6: Religion and Morality in Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

7: Religion and Morality in the Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

8: Religion and Morality in of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

9: Religion and Morality in to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

10: Religion and Morality in the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

11: Religion and Morality in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

III: Suggestions for Preventing and Responding to Challenges

12: Suggestions for Preventing and Responding to Challenges

Appendix A: Sources for Preventing and Responding to Challenges

Appendix B: Sample "Request for Reconsideration"

Appendix C: Organizations against Censorship

References

Author Index

Index
9 .

The Vonnegut Chronicles: Interviews and Essays ("Beyond the Slaughterhouse: Tralfamadorian Reading Theory in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut" begins on p. 91)
by Peter J. Reed, Marc Leeds. 266 pgs.

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Since 1950, when his short stories first appeared, Kurt Vonnegut has published almost 50 short stories, 13 novels, two plays, and a teleplay. He has remained one of the most important chroniclers of American life. Yet he occupies an ambiguous place in American letters. Following three interviews with Vonnegut, the 14 essays in this collection seek to chronicle his career as it moves through changing times. The essays either focus on Vonnegut's later work or are retrospectives reevaluating aspects of his literary career. Some are on individual works, particularly later novels, but most consider the ways Vonnegut pursues a theme or technique.

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Title Page

Copyright Acknowledgments

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

NOTES

Chronology

Part I: Interviews with Vonnegut

A Conversation with Kurt Vonnegut, 1982

Serenity, Courage, Wisdom: A Talk with Kurt Vonnegut, 1989

On Art, Writing, Fellini, and Time Quake, 1993

Part II: Essays on Vonnegut

The Responsive Shaman: Kurt Vonnegut and His World

WORKS CITED

Kurt Vonnegut: Public Spokesman

Kurt Vonnegut: Public Spokesman

Kurt Vonnegut as a German American

WORKS CITED

Bokononism as a Structure of Ironies

WORKS CITED

Beyond the Slaughterhouse: Tralfamadorian Reading Theory in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut

WORKS CITED

Jailbird: A Postmodern Fairy Tale

WORKS CITIED

Lonesome Once More: The Family Theme in Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick

WORKS CITED

Dancing with the Muse in Vonnegut's Later Novels

WORKS CITED

Vonnegut's Invented Religions as Sense-Making Systems

WORKS CITED

Bluebeard and the Abstract Expressionists

Bluebeard and the Abstract Expressionists

Hartke's Hearing: Vonnegut's Heroes on Trial

WORKS CITED

Appendix: The Graphics of Kurt Vonnegut

Index

About the Contributors

Recent Titles in Contributions to the Study of World Literature
10 .

Between Two Worlds: The American Novel in the 1960's (Discussion of Slaughterhouse-Five begins on p. 95)
by Sanford Pinsker. 139 pgs.

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Pinsker identifies the literary trends that dominated the decade and focuses upon authors who came into prominence during this period.

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Acknowledgements

I: An Introduction of Sorts

Notes

II: The Graying of Black Humor

Notes

III: The Rise-And-Fall of the American-Jewish Novel

Notes

IV: Christ as Revolutionary/Revolutionary as Christ: the Hero in Bernard Malamud's the Fixer and William Styron's the Confessions of Nat Turner

Notes

V: John Barth: the Teller Who Swallowed His Tale

Notes

VI: Fire and Ice: the Radical Cuteness of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Notes

VII: The Mixed Chords of David Madden's Cassandra Singing

VII: The Mixed Chords of David Madden's Cassandra Singing

VIII: Isaac Bashevis Singer and Joyce Carol Oates: Some Versions of Gothic

Notes

A Selected Bibliography of the American Novel in the 1960's
11 .

Structuring the Void: The Struggle for Subject in Contemporary American Fiction (Discussion of Slaughterhouse-Five begins on p. 34)
by Jerome Klinkowitz. 182 pgs.

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Acknowledgments

1: Structuring The Void

2: Biography: Kurt Vonnegut's America

3: Ritual Max Apple's History Of Our Times

4: Comedy: Gerald Rosen And Rob Swigart's California

5: Constraint: Gender

6: Constraint: Vietnam

7: Beyond Time's Constraint: Spatial Form

Index

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