"Oh, the Humanity!" Ward, Joseph J
The Humanistic psychologist,
04/2011, Letnik:
39, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The frequent absurdity and enduring irrationality of the human
condition has long been a subject of inquiry by philosophy, literature, and
other traditional humanities. This article argues that ...expanding the
disciplinary scope of this inquiry to include psychology provides a fertile
field of ideas for how we can best respond to a condition that continually
affects us all. Using an interdisciplinary approach combining literature,
existential philosophy, and humanistic psychology, this article shows how
particular works of Kurt Vonnegut illuminate existential principles of the
popular form of psychotherapy, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, while
suggesting an optimal response to our common condition.
Utilizing a unique writing style that includes humor, science fiction, and cataclysmic scenarios, Kurt Vonnegut strives to better the world and its inhabitants. Of his books, Cat's Cradle and ...Slaughterhouse-Five exemplify this desire. Each novel attacks major institutions—science and religion in the former, war and fatalism in the latter—in order to demonstrate the repercussions of humanity's irresponsibility. And yet for all the serious topics these novels broach, they are tempered by Vonnegut's biting, often dark and grotesque, but ultimately droll sense of humor. Whether intentionally or not, Vonnegut embraces the ideals of "carnival" as laid out by Russian theorist M.L. Bakhtin in his book Rabelais and His World. Through his humor, through his usurpation of familiar novelistic elements in part by his use of science fiction, and through his insistence on humanistic responsibility, Vonnegut typifies the spirit of Bakhtin's carnival.
Adding to the growing literatures on popular culture and its uses in classrooms, this article explores the civic lessons that are embedded within Kurt Vonnegut's body of work. The article argues that ...Vonnegut's writings are particularly insightful regarding violence and racism and, thus, have the potential to enliven the school curriculum and to foster students' civic awareness and engagement. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Close examination of the form of Vonnegut's humor in Slaughterhouse-Five reveals a more straightforwardly realist intent than his mode of representation initially suggests. As Rachel Giora has ...argued, the structure of jokes establishes an initial system of meaning followed by a punchline that recontextualizes that system, thereby forcing a reinterpretation. Slaughterhouse's humor is structured such that an initially escapist system of meaning is overturned by a punchline that provokes the reader into recognition of the real, thereby mirroring the intent of social realist narrative. By comically linking Billy Pilgrim's fantasy worlds of time travel and alien abduction to the real events of Dresden, Vonnegut triggers reappraisals of a variety of American cultural ideals, ultimately prompting a robust moral schema based on serious reconsideration of our social and civic obligations.
This thesis explores Schenkerian analysis and its inherent narrative properties. It also presents Kurt Vonnegut's "Shape of Stories" theory and its potential for augmenting extant analyses from a ...Schenkerian perspective. Each of these theories contains visual representations of archetypes within its respective discipline. This thesis explores the graphic archetypes presented by each theory and then presents a narrative approach to a Schenkerian analysis of Mendelssohn's Lied ohne Worte, op. 67, no. 1. The analysis is then reinforced, applying Vonnegut's theory in order to present a deeper understanding of the piece.
A defining analysis of the entire span of Kurt Vonnegut's fiction Kurt Vonnegut is one of the few American writers since Mark Twain to have won and sustained a great popular acceptance while boldly ...introducing new themes and forms on the literary cutting edge. This is the "Vonnegut effect" that Jerome Klinkowitz finds unique among postmodernist authors. In this innovative study of the author's fiction, Klinkowitz examines the forces in American life that have made Vonnegut's works possible. Vonnegut shared with readers a world that includes the expansive timeline from the Great Depression, during which his family lost their economic support, through the countercultural revolt of the 1960s, during which his fiction first gained prominence. Vonnegut also explored the growth in recent decades of America's sway in art, which his fiction celebrates, and geopolitics, which his novels question. A pioneer in Vonnegut studies, Jerome Klinkowitz offers The Vonnegut Effect as a thorough treatment of the author's fiction—a canon covering more than a half century and comprising twenty books. Considering both Vonnegut's methods and the cultural needs they have served, Klinkowitz explains how those works came to be written and concludes with an assessment of the author's place in American fiction.
A Ghost in the Rigging Andersen, Corinne
Science-fiction studies,
03/2009, Letnik:
36
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Andersen comments on Kurt Vonnegut's novel Galapagos and Arthur Koestler's The Ghost in the Machine: The Urge to Self-Destruction. She states that while Vonnegut's and Koestler's hypotheses seem ...fatalistic, a competing current of admiration for humanity saves Galapagos and The Ghost in the Machine from total pessimism. Both works suggest that humanity is Janus-faced, with an arrogant and abusive but also a compassionate and creative side.
Vonnegut in Fact offers a thorough assessment of the artistry of Kurt Vonnegut, known not only as the best-selling author of Slaughterhouse-Five, Timequake, and a dozen other novels, but also as the ...most widely recognized public spokesperson among writers since Mark Twain. Jerome Klinkowitz traces the emergence of Vonnegut's nonfiction since the 1960s, when commentary and feature journalism replaced the rapidly dying short story market. Offering close readings and insightful criticism of Vonnegut's three major works of nonfiction, his many uncollected pieces, and his unique manner of public speaking, Klinkowitz explains how Vonnegut's personal visions developed into a style of great public responsibility that mirrored the growth of his fiction. Klinkowitz views his subject as a gentle manipulator of popular forms and an extremely personable figure; what might seem radically innovative and even iconoclastic in his fiction becomes comfortably avuncular and familiarly American when followed to its roots in his public spokesmanship.
The article investigates Vonnegut's use of time as a means to communicate value constructs in three novels, Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, and Sirens of Titan. Even while time manifests ...in all three works on the continuum of the fantastic, Vonnegut uses fantastic time to communicate the banal, while real time seems to become fantastic. Vonnegut's combination of the fantastic and the ordinary create a new understanding of what it means to be a human being, as he scrutinizes racism, greed, sexism, and violence as juxtaposed against the values of human kindness. Vonnegut exposes the peculiar human inability to decipher real value and meaning when faced with choices involving mundane or materialistic goals. The questioning of traditional values, exposed as meaningless, contradictory, and nonsensical when viewed from the alienated perspective of defamiliarization causes a rupture which is emblematic of a corresponding need for new ways of reading and interpreting.
