AN ANALYSIS ON NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE IN KURT VONNEGUT’S SLAUGHTER HOUSE – FIVE

Abstract

This paper examines the postmodern brilliance of Vonnegut’s experimental writing in Slaughter House Five. There have been two major concerns voiced since postmodernism’s inception. That is to say, the two most prominent genres in contemporary writing are those dealing with weariness and those dealing with refuelling. For this reason, this article delves into Vonnegut’s criticism of literary weariness prevalent in modernism in an effort to permanently refill these literary genres. Vonnegut gets across his criticism through tinkering with the novel’s structure, narration, and characters’ words. It might be claimed that Vonnegut combines fact and fantasy in his works. Therefore, in the sake of renewing manipulation, the self-reflexive metafiction under discussion conflates fictitious experimental forms with ideological critique that attests to its fictionality. The literary critic’s job is to declare the reader-author relationship as complicated, and this is generally done through the use of a criticism. That genuinely postmodern metafiction is being distinguished from what may be called therapeutic experimentation in a self-justifying manner is, thus, the key point of emphasis. This means that metafiction does not pave the way for new genre signs. Instead, it’s the first step in a work of ideological dialogic fiction that bridges the gap between text and world. Allusions to Patricia Waugh’s use of metafictional elements will be made as part of this examination of the novel’s narrative. The focalization factor, developed by French dramatist Gérard Genette, will be used to analyse the narrator’s credibility. Applying Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories on dialogue to the character’s speech is a great way to understand what they’re saying. Vonnegut’s play with these devices in storytelling exemplifies the postmodern blending of fiction and reality.