From Nostalgia To Dissolution

Kurt Vonnegut (1922- ), active in the later half of 20th century, rose to fame with the publication of The Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), the sixth of his 14 novels. A well-known and widely read writer he is, Vonnegut occupies a somewhat ambiguous place in contemporary literary scene.The present thesis focuses on the idea that Kurt Vonnegut is deeply concerned with matters of religion which distinguishes him from his contemporary writers. And it can be said that religion is the very center of Vonnegut's novels.The thesis is the first attempt so far in China to explore the changing process of Vonnegut's religious consciousness reflected in his novels, which has experienced religious nostalgia, religious absurdity and religious dissolution. Although there are many foreign critics who have touched upon the religious field and showed their interests in Vonnegut's religious consciousness reflected in his individual works, none of them offers a systematic and comprehensive analysis about his changing process of religious consciousness during different creation periods.Further research enables the author of the present thesis to discover that these three stages coincide with three of his representative novels, namely, Player Piano, Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five. So the thesis intends to analyze the changing process of Vonnegut's religious consciousness on the basis of the three works.Introduction points out that religion is always the center of Vonnegut's life and fictional creation and it also briefly introduces some criticisms about Vonnegut's concern about religion and Vonnegut's religious consciousness reflected in his individual works.Chapter Two is divided in three sections, attempting to offer a relatively complete view of the changing process of Vonnegut's religious consciousness from religious nostalgia in Player Piano, to religious absurdity in Cat's Cradle and finally to religious dissolution in Slaughterhouse-Five. The first section presents a careful discussion of Player Piano in order to point out that religious nostalgia is Vonnegut's religious consciousness at that period. In the second one, the author's parody ofChristianity is paid attention to. It tries to prove that at the creation period of Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut's religious consciousness has changed from religious nostalgia to religious absurdity. And the change continues in the author's most representative work—Slaughterhouse-Five, in which Vonnegut's religious consciousness finally comes to the stage of religious dissolution.Preparing for further discussion, Chapter Three focuses on the influence of the socio-cultural context on the changing process of the author from two aspects: one is the particular social environment and the other is the popular ideologies at that time, which help explain why religion becomes the center of the author's concern and how Vonnegut's religious consciousness has experienced a changing process. A thorough awareness of the changing process of Vonnegut's religious consciousness and the reason for that will surely help the reader better understand the works of Vonnegut.