Contextualization (K.V.) Copy

Contextualization (K.V.) Copy

KURT VONNEGUT (1922-2007)

HISTORY:

  • WW II lasts 6 years (1939-1945);
  • After WW II- Reconstruction and large-scale immigration from the former colonies (India)
  • The world is dominated by the U.S and the Soviet Union

ECONOMY AND SOCIETY:

  • Post-war reconstruction began in the 1940s
  • High-powered consumer society
  • The rise in the level of education

IDEOLOGY AND CULTURE:

  • Contemporary literature is difficult to classify; its diversity reflects the fragmentary kaleidoscope of modern existence;
  • Modernism and Post-modernism coexist in contemporary British literature and are the two main literary orientations.
                 ModernismPost-modernism
Poetry
Rejection of diction, as it is considered unsuitable for an era of technological breakthroughs and global violence;
Break with Romantic ideas (the notion of sublime);
Poetry becomes sceptical of language and its notion of coherence;
Disrupted syntax;
Free verse;
Focus on images and symbols;
Prose:
Non-chronological;
Experiments with time representation and perception: literary devices ̶ temporal juxtapositions, sudden jumps;
Focus on the inner world of the character: literary devices ̶ stream of consciousness, memory, perception;
The plot is replaced by specific modernist patterns: time, place, character, leitmotifs, symbols, mythic patterns, and cinematic devices (space and time montage);Theme: atemporal, eternal conflicts of the soul, philosophy;Range: limited, presented subjectively. Life is chaotic, disordered, fragmentary;Narration: subjective, limited point of view or combination of points of view;Structure: open form.		Pragmatic;
Eludes definition;
Eclectic flexibility;
Playfulness;
Irony;
Parody;
Experimental;
Challenge of authority;
Simple language and complex structure;
The boundaries of art are ignored;
The intertextual technique (brings together a variety of literary styles from the past and present);
Freedom to express views that are different from the norm;
Literary genres become mixed.  

THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORK

  • Born in Indianapolis;
  • Fought in World War II and was taken prisoner by the Germans;
  • Survived the allied bombing of Dresden in the meat locker of the slaughterhouse where he was imprisoned;
  • Worked as a reporter and in public relations;
  • Novels:
    • “Player Piano”
    • “Cat’s Cradle”
    • “Slaughterhouse-Five”
    • “Hocus Pocus”