In celebration of his 50th birthday, Kurt Vonnegut wrote a book to himself as a present which is mentioned by Vonnegut in the preface of the book. The name of this book is Breakfast of Champions. This book is primarily about the meeting between a car dealer named Dwayne Hoover and an old writer named Kilgore Trout. This meeting leads to Dwayne going insane. At first, this book may seem to be a mix of irrelevant information with no exact chronological order. At times, this book can also be very confusing. However upon closer examination, the book has much more to offer. This book is written about America and draws many parallels with American Culture such as the many problems existing within America or the attitude of the peoples. Through analysis
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Postmodernism arose in the mid to late 20th century and was a movement that mainly impacted the arts such as music, architecture and literature. Postmodernism arose hugely due to the events in America at the time and the failures of Modernism. Because of this, many postmodernists have a very skeptical look into elements of their society. To properly analyze Vonnegut’s unique writing style and literary choices, one must first take a look some of the basic elements of a postmodern novel of which Vonnegut’s style for this book is based on. The postmodern style can be very different from author to author, thus making it very hard to categorize all American postmodern literature into one specific style. Nonetheless, most generally have the following traits or elements: Paranoia, Pastiche, Metafiction, books can be of various length, magical elements, hyper reality and usually lacks a grand narrative …show more content…
Pastiche is a common element included which is basically when the author tries to imitate other styles/genres and putting them together into a literary collage (Matos). Another element of postmodern fictions is the fact that they often embrace their nature as fiction (Matos). This means that the some or all of the characters in the book knows that they are in a book. This is called “meta-fiction.” This is unlike other fictions, which will often hide the fact that it is fiction. Postmodern writers also experimented a lot with the lengths of the books. Other elements include hyper reality. Hyper reality is the concept that nothing is real anymore due to everything being simulated especially through the use of technology. Words like “originality” and “authenticity” no longer have merit, because everything has already been done and all texts are based off of or made by reworking pre-existing works. Postmodern novels also seem to have a very satirical and thus, skeptical attitude towards many problems. This attitude is also reflected upon the society at the time as well. Also, postmodern literature usually lacks a grand narrative and it seldom provides closure to themes and problems, unlike a conventional narrative. Lastly, it contains a great deal of irony which is not exclusive to Post Modernism, however most postmodernist authors seem to use a fair amount of irony and Postmodern novels
Postmodernism arose in the mid to late 20th century and was a movement that mainly impacted the arts such as music, architecture and literature. Postmodernism arose hugely due to the events in America at the time and the failures of Modernism. Because of this, many postmodernists have a very skeptical look into elements of their society. To properly analyze Vonnegut’s unique writing style and literary choices, one must first take a look some of the basic elements of a postmodern novel of which Vonnegut’s style for this book is based on. The postmodern style can be very different from author to author, thus making it very hard to categorize all American postmodern literature into one specific style. Nonetheless, most generally have the following traits or elements: Paranoia, Pastiche, Metafiction, books can be of various length, magical elements, hyper reality and usually lacks a grand narrative …show more content…
Pastiche is a common element included which is basically when the author tries to imitate other styles/genres and putting them together into a literary collage (Matos). Another element of postmodern fictions is the fact that they often embrace their nature as fiction (Matos). This means that the some or all of the characters in the book knows that they are in a book. This is called “meta-fiction.” This is unlike other fictions, which will often hide the fact that it is fiction. Postmodern writers also experimented a lot with the lengths of the books. Other elements include hyper reality. Hyper reality is the concept that nothing is real anymore due to everything being simulated especially through the use of technology. Words like “originality” and “authenticity” no longer have merit, because everything has already been done and all texts are based off of or made by reworking pre-existing works. Postmodern novels also seem to have a very satirical and thus, skeptical attitude towards many problems. This attitude is also reflected upon the society at the time as well. Also, postmodern literature usually lacks a grand narrative and it seldom provides closure to themes and problems, unlike a conventional narrative. Lastly, it contains a great deal of irony which is not exclusive to Post Modernism, however most postmodernist authors seem to use a fair amount of irony and Postmodern novels