Postmodernism and Metafiction in Slaughterhouse Five: Analysis of Literary Devices

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five is the story of Billy Pilgrim. A former American soldier and prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany. Billy suffers different hardships during his service to Dresden. He was a optometrist by profession. The story of Billy is told in flashback in many episodes. The construction of the novel is typical postmodern fiction this is because the events are told via both the authors narration who tells Billy’s story, and Billy’s own account of his story in Dresden. Postmodernism portrays a great deal of human experience. The most obvious human experience is in the novel is the metafictional essence, which makes it a postmodern novel relying on metafiction . For instance the first chapter of Slaughterhouse Five is the authors view on how he came to write the novel. 

My name is Yon Yonson,  

I work in Wisconsin,  

I work in a lumbermill there.  

The people I meet when I walk down the street,  

They say, ‘What’s your name?’  

And I say,  

‘My name is Yon Yonson,  

I work in Wisconsin…’    

And so on to infinity (Vonnegut, pg 3). 

These were the lines from the song that Vonnegut was reminded of when he was writing about Dresden. Postmodernism is depicted throughtout the novel. Slaughterhouse Five provides examples of live sufferings, the need for liberty and construction of hopes of peace. The Second World War not only left its casuality imprint on the continent, but also all over the world.    

To begin with, the devastating consequences of the war inspired many thinkers to render the history of the world the terminology that is postmodernism. As a result human arts, especially literature. Before the advent of postmodernity, literature was regularly touted in a united way and had certain labels, eg modern literature which was characterized by a stable and expressive poetics. Vonnegut is consequently providing an ‘anti traditional narrative point of viewing the authors view in the novel.’ In reference to Edgar Derby, the aurthour voices his own opinion of the structure of the novel. ‘Edgar Derby, the high school teacher would eventually be shot, snored on another (Vonnegut, p.136)’. Thus reference of climax is the authors emphasis on the importance of ‘executing Edgar Derby.’ Who is touted as the incarnation of the status of modern literature. Edgar was shot for stealing a teapot from the rubble of Dresden. Vonnegut comments on the irony of the situation where he Edgar survives the misery of the firebombing of Dresden only to be executed for a trivial ‘crime’.    

Nevertheless, the most viable positioning involves delving into a experimentation with the narrative device within fictional text. In Slaughterhouse Five there is an evidently self-conscious comment on the text of its metafictional structure. Since the whole plot of the novel demonstrates the tragic consequences of the burning of Dresden. The plot exposes the catastrophic events that happen in the city following the attack: “It is hoped that this little book will make itself useful… … of how Dresden came to look as it does architecturally; (Vonnegut, p.17).” It is the depiction of the real tragic events which may have happened during Vonnegut’s life. He is describing the effect of the bombing on Dresden which destroyed almost everything and how it has been brought into a new architectural environment after the destruction. Thus, the fictional work gives an example of postmodern metafictional status. The conjuctions used put emphasis on the postmodern text.    

Furthermore, postmodern examines the innovative techniques and literary devices used in fictional works. It is the replenishing process of what had been experimental in terms of of literary imitation and no longer experimental with the advent of postmodernism (Majeed, p.74). Vonnegut is a practitioner of such literacy. He narrates himself as composer of the strong as a technique. The author’s voice is approached in terms of double voice discourse. The novel plays an important role in determining the author’s position in the novel. Moreover, Vonnegut does not directly bring himself as an author in the novel. He employs double voiced vision. He gives his own perspectives about the novel by this technique.    

The focalization factor is the most important techniques used in narration. It is one of the factors that situate the narrative point of view from which the story is told. Like many other narrative elements focalization adds self-reflexive intrusion in the text. Like metafiction it carries authors or narrators comments on the novel. The critical potential of focalization is a subtle this manipulates a normal event in the plot to a rather abnormal event. In contrast they tell a story of extrodinary events happening in Dresden. The term focalization, nonetheless, is somewhat manipulative. While this manipulation is consciously produced, a self-reflexive comment appears on the surface of the novels exposition. On the other hand, the spatial setting is Dresden, Germany. From the very beginning of the novel it is connected with the temporal setting of the novel, “I think of how useless the Dresden part of my memory has been, and yet how tempting Dresden has been to write about, and Iam reminded of the famous limerick: (Vonnegut,p.2).” Here, the connection of time and place is the focalization object. These are thus connected to break away from the usual representation of a setting in fictional texts. As texts are narrated within a specific time period, place is the ground field for the time span. The object of focalization consolidates the technical aspects of slaughterhouse five since it is constructed as a postmodern metafictional device.

Additionally, the authorial voice is approached in terms of double-voiced discourse. Discourse categories and classifications are subject to the author’s voice. Nevertheless, the text plays an important role in determining the authorial position in the text. The text does not get intiated. Here, double-voiced vision appears as the text goes along ,with the authors abstract voice being concretized in the fictional context. Also the most penetrative technique of double-voiced dialogism ascribes the author’s perspective to the textual scenario depicted. Thus the text, and all its pertinent devices, is being drawn out through the main narrative voice. It is critically argued that the texts main voice is the narrative point of view, where the narrative is initiated from a certain point in the text. From a double voiced narrative perspective, however the authorial voice participates in the narrative emphasize a specific ideology in postmodern fiction. The narrative-author interplay in the text is a fairly metafictional device. By the same token, Slaughterhouse Five mixes an authorial abstract voice and enacts it in the text. Vonnegut’s main concern is the consequences of Second World War and how these demolished American individuality. This is depicted in the novel, when Billy wanders in the streets he feels everything is normal. The normality of the entities around him does not represent the truth but a fake facade of reality surrounding him.    

Slaughterhouse Five is a postmodern literature. It is the depiction of fictional novels exposing the tragic consequences of the Second World War. In particular, it is the depiction of the reality outside its textual structure. Contemporary narrative modes lack a certain contextually as a modern literature imitates the styles and techniques of previous literature. Henceforth, there is a new predilection in postmodernism to break away from modernism and its reliance on pre-exsiting literay modes. These basic narrative elements are monotonously imitated in modern literature. However, they are manipulated in Vonnegut’s postmodern fictional text. Such manipulation proliferates within a postmodern relative vision of reality. The relative vision of reality in a postmodern context depends on the author’s perspective of the current categorical changes of the time. Vonnegut exploits metafictional devices to introduce his critical opinion through the narrator in the course of the plot as a fictional interplay between the authors abstract vision and reality. In doing so, he provides a basis for perceiving the American individuals suffering after the Second World War.

 Works Cited 

• Atchison, Steven T. (2008). The Spark of the Text: Toward an Ethical Reading for Traumatic Literature. Greensboro, N.C.: University of North Carolina at Greensboro. pp, 1-33. 
• Majeed, Abdullahmeed A., Termizi, Arbaayah B.T. Journal of Foreign Languages, Cultures and Civilizations. June 2015, Vol.3, No.1, pp. 72-78. 
• Vonnegut, Kurt. (2007) . “Slaughterhouse Five”. New York: Dial Press. Pp,1-215.