From 'Breakfast' to 'Bluebeard': Vonnegut after experimentalism (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.)

The critical community has largely ignored the novels of Kurt Vonnegut written since 1976. This thesis will look at three of those novels, Jailbird (1979), Galapagos (1986) and Bluebeard (1987) and analyze them in the context of Vonnegut's earlier writing, particularly Breakfast of Champions (1973). This study uses no particular critical approach other than close reading and analysis of form and theme. The study concludes that Vonnegut's later novels are ethically and aesthetically consistent, though drastically different in style, from the earlier ones.