On The Black Humor In Vonnegut's Novels

Black humor, as a literal term, was first coined by the French critic Andre Breton in his publication of Anthologie de L'humour Noir in 1945. It appeared in American literature as a literal movement officially in 1965 when Conrad Knickerbocker first identified the phenomenon of postwar America in his groundbreaking Humor and Its Mortal Thing.However, many critics adopted the term black humor without modification, mostly because this was the consequence of a casual reference to and translation of l'humour noir, which was a French manifestation of black humor associated with existentialism and satire. A principal cause of this confusion was the publication of two books: Anthology of Black Humor, by the surrealist Andre Breton in 1945; and the other, simply called Black Humor, by Bruce Jay Friedman, published in 1965. These two anthologies cover a wide variety of writers, satirists, existentialists, surrealists, and others. By placing a varied spectrum of somewhat mysterious writers under a single umbrella of terminology to facilitate discussion, however, the critics are sacrificing precision of definition for academic convenience.The right way to study the concept is to put it in the environment where it was born. Black humor in America is not the same as the one in France in the early 1920s, but that it has its own uniqueness. In other words, American black humor was born after World War II and influenced by a series of following wars, both hot war and cold war. During these wars, the Americans have experienced too much, both physically and spiritually. At the end of the wars, they lost their homes, purposes and values of life, and their sense of history became vague and uncertain. World War II is not only a time marker of black humor, but rather, it is the cradle of black humor.The objective of the study of postwar American black humor will be to go farther than previous critics in positioning this literary reaction more clearly in its historical context in order that people can better understand what the literature's true purpose and characteristics are. In this thesis, three Vonnegut's novels, Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle and The Sirens of Titan will be examined both in terms of how they reflect the historical uncertainty and moral ambiguity of postwar America, and how they help to better understand the nebulous term black humor. This thesis is composed of three parts, namely, introduction, main body, and conclusion. In the introduction, the writing covers how American black humor distinguishes from that in early twentieth century France, which is associated with existentialism and satire. In addition, the perspective of the American black humorists represented by Kurt Vonnegut is included. Meanwhile, the purpose of writing this thesis together with the realistic social meaning is presented.The main body consists of three chapters. Chapter One introduces the climate of World War II, which attributes the disorienting nature to the literary of black humor. The moral and historical disorientation that a large number of people experienced before, during, and after World War II consequently caused the moral and historical anxiety to the Americans. With the change of cosmological picture, people fell into historical and epistemological crisis. In addition, postwar pessimism and uncertainty in Kurt Vonnegut are introduced.Chapter Two analyzes the historical pessimism and uncertainty of postwar America and American black humor through three of Vonnegut's novels. Slaughterhouse-Five points out that there were no discernible cause/effect relationships in postwar America, thus the individuals were bewildered and disoriented in a chaotic universe. In Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut suggests that religion has failed to provide history with meaning, it is based on lies. The Sirens of Titan indicates that to the people in postwar America, history is ultimately meaningless human terms.Chapter Three discusses postwar amorality and scientific indifference. In Slaughterhouse-Five, religion is a hollow, superficial institution, barely able to offer consolation to those who pursue religious solace. Cat's Cradle reminds people that amorality and indifference will finally destroy our universe. The Sirens of Titan suggests that the story of religion and science is just the same, the attempt by man to equals with God in knowledge and power.The last part of the thesis is conclusion. This part summaries chapters and points out that black humor makes no claim on propriety, morality or truth. What Vonnegut provides in lieu of this comforting voice is the cathartic power of laughter. Besides, the social meaning of this thesis is included.