The Post-modern Art Exploration Of The Anti-war Novel "Abattoir No. 5"

In the history of contemporary American literature,Kurt Vonnegut is one of the most influential writers.His writing career exceeded more than half a century,and most of his works are adored and praised by readers and experts.Nevertheless,his early works were considered unpromising and shabby,and he was even ridiculed as "comic book philosopher" "empty maxim supplier",and so on.In 1969,"Slaughterhouse-Five" was published with great success,ranking the top best seller in the New York Times,which formally laid the foundation of his position in the fiction world.There are a lot of researches about him,especially study of his "Slaughterhouse-Five".The research findings are quite rich,but there is still room to explore much deeper in this work.This thesis focuses on Vonnegut's famous work "Slaughterhouse-Five".It analyzes its writing technique as one of the artistic representatives of postmodern fictions,and explores its similarities and differences with other anti-war fictions on the basis of anti-war works.On the basis of summarizing the previous achievements,it provides a new perspective of both formal criticism and theoretical viewpoint,and further explores the rich connotation and artistic value of Vonnegut's fictions.This thesis consists of the following parts:The foreword sorts out the creation of Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" and its translation and research in China,and put forward the main points of view in this thesis.The first chapter of this paper introduces Vonnegut's anti-war novel “Slaughterhouse-Five”,explaining the real thoughts expressed by the novel from the perspectives of Vonnegut's anti-war sentiments.Then,from the two aspects of characters and events,the reasons why “Slaughterhouse-Five” should not be considered as a traditional anti-war novel,as well as the significance thereof,is clarified.The second chapter analyzes the meta-fiction style of “Slaughterhouse-Five” from three aspects,namely the appearance of the author,the breaking the framework,as well as the game and collage.The application of meta-fiction in this novel is then analyzed in detail.The third chapter discusses “Slaughterhouse-Five” from the absurdity of the theme.From the absurdity in the plot and the "anti-hero" style,it analyses the usage of the absurd technique in the novel.The fourth chapter explains the black humor of “Slaughterhouse-Five”.It illustrates the usage of black humor in the novel from the perspective of the plot and language.The usage of black humor demonstrated Vonnegut's proficiency and ingenious use of words,through which attraction is injected into what is supposed to be a solemn anti-war novel,in addition to not sacrificing its educational value.Lastly,the conclusion discusses the contribution and achievement of “Slaughterhouse-Five” as well as Vonnegut as the author,Vonnegut is a very important postmodernist fictionist.He diligently pursued new literary forms,and used these new forms to express his humanitarian thoughts and profound reflection on history.His contribution lies in his revolution in literary writing and in his humanitarianism thought to push forward the society.