Anti-war Literature

War writing

Experience and truth

Representational crisis

Vonnegut

Realist / Naturalist Representation

Most WWII literature follows this pattern

It is not until the late 50s that the realist representational form is challenged.

Broadly and in war literature

Realist / Naturalist Representation

War is hell

This truism is the guideline for much war literature, particularly those who have participated.

The horror of the situation is expressed

Realist / Naturalist Representation

Bildungsroman

Using structures similar to the Bildungsroman these texts generally articulate a loss of innocence.

This innocence gives way to experience, often disillusionment.

Often results in a perceived machismo / masculine text.

When boys become men

Realist / Naturalist Representation

The soldier as hero and masculine ideal

Cultural icon not shared by writers

Realist / Naturalist Representation

The soldier as meaningless pawn in a meaningless game of history.

The circumstances are seen as meaningless and the loss of life is meaningless.

Remains embedded in conventional language and narrative.

Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Beginning in the 1955 in magazines, published in 1961.

Its anti-war message makes it popular among young people.

Yossarian lives!

Absurd logic of war

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.

Postmodern Representations

The lack of objective truth.

Metafictional reflexivity.

Fragments favored over coherence.

Anti-authoritarianism

Historical fabulation reveals a belief in historical impotence.

Tim OBrien is one example postmodern response.

Later Vonnegut is another.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

1922 2007

Cats Cradle

Slaughterhouse-Five

Breakfast of Champions

Satire, science fiction and black comedy

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

Was a soldier in WWII.

One of the few Americans to survive the bombing of Dresden.

Imprisoned in Schlachthof Fnf

Casualties difficult to determine, but estimated at 25,000 35,000.

Vonnegut received a Purple Heart.

Slaughterhouse-Five

Early example of postmodernist writing: 1969.

Belated response to WWII.

Five earlier novels.

Billy Pilgrim unstuck in time, travels to Tralfamadore.

Opens with a framing chapter, mentioning the difficulty in writing WWII experiences.