Absurd America in the novels of Vonnegut, Pynchon, and Boyle

This dissertation focuses on contemporary absurdist novels by Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, and T. Coraghessan Boyle. My premise is that these novelists engage in a uniquely American, political approach to the absurd mode---a distinction that sets them apart from the European absurdists, who tend to focus on the absurdity of existence rather than on society. While Albert Camus's concept of the absurd informs both the Europeans and the Americans, they respond to his ideas differently. In the United States, absurdists give a stronger emphasis to Camus's ideal of revolt, freedom, and diversity. In each chapter, I focus on two novels: Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and Timequake, Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and Mason & Dixon, and Boyle's The Tortilla Curtain and A Friend to the Earth. My argument is that while the absurd may be seen as an alibi for inaction, it can also be a call to social and political action. In my analysis of their novels, I examine ways in which the authors use the absurdist techniques and content to engage in political and social commentary in a way that elicits laughter, thought, and, perhaps, action.