This paper is published in Volume-4, Issue-4, 2018
Area
Black Humor
Author
Kavya M, Dr Ann Thomas
Org/Univ
Madras Christian College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Pub. Date
16 August, 2018
Paper ID
V4I4-1437
Publisher
Keywords
Absurdity, Futility, Horror- humor- horror, Grotesque humor, Subversion- degenerative literature, Meta language, Burlesque, Parody, Reflexivity

Citationsacebook

IEEE
Kavya M, Dr Ann Thomas. Kurt Vonnegut a post modern- Genius excelling in black humor, International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, www.IJARIIT.com.

APA
Kavya M, Dr Ann Thomas (2018). Kurt Vonnegut a post modern- Genius excelling in black humor. International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, 4(4) www.IJARIIT.com.

MLA
Kavya M, Dr Ann Thomas. "Kurt Vonnegut a post modern- Genius excelling in black humor." International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology 4.4 (2018). www.IJARIIT.com.

Abstract

Kurt Vonnegut is a postmodern marvel. His heart-wrenching novel Slaughterhouse-5 is about World War II and it`s horrors, and how Kurt Vonnegut uses black humor to circumvent the tragic horror of war is the main theme of this article. It is an attempt to show that Kurt Vonnegut is a postmodern scribe employing all forms of satire especially grotesque humor which puts horror and humor side by side. This article tries to show that Kurt Vonnegut with his postmodern philosophy uses the conventional satirical tools like parody, irony and burlesque and the unconventional instruments like the black humor and Metalanguage. This article emphasizes his perspective about the ills of modern warfare and the socio political injustices that are heaped upon the meek and the un-protesting common man on the street. We understand poststructuralism and postmodernism are in fact two sides of a new critical literary thought. This article tries to show that Kurt Vonnegut may have a change of heart from being a mute spectator to man`s suffering to a difficult kind of literature which will have something to say against the destabilizing forces of nature. In this article, it is highlighted that the reader has a greater role to play in the text than the author himself as postulated by Barthe as ‘the death of the author.’