Posthumanism in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut Matter That Complains So Routledge Research in American Literature and Culture Series

Posthumanism in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut: Matter That Complains So re-examines the prevailing critical consensus that Kurt Vonnegut was a humanist writer. While more difficult elements of his work have often been the subject of scholarly attention, the tendency amongst critics writing on Vonnegut is to disavow them, or to subsume them within a liberal humanist framework. When Vonnegut?s work is read from a posthumanist perspective, however, the productive paradoxes of his work are more fully realised. Drawing on New Materialist, Eco-Critical and Systems Theory methodologies, this book highlights posthumanist themes in six of Vonnegut?s most famous novels, and emphasises the ways in which Vonnegut troubles human/non-human, natural/artificial, and material/discursive hierarchical binaries

Introduction

Section One: Comic Material

Chapter One: Cat’s Cradle: The Life and Times of Ice-nine

Chapter Two: Breakfast of Champions: Rebirth Suspended

Section Two: Environment and Evolution

Chapter Three: Mother Night: A Nation of Two

Chapter Four: Galapagos: Writing on Air

Section Three: Space and Time

Chapter Five: The Sirens of Titan: Matter That Complains So

Chapter Six: Slaughterhouse-Five: "Poo-tee-weet?"

Conclusion

Andrew John Hicks completed his undergraduate degree at Royal Holloway University of London, his MA at the University of Exeter, and his PhD at the University of Bristol, UK. His work focuses on American and Postmodern Literature and Posthumanist Critical Theory. He currently resides in Exeter, UK.