Deconstructing The Narrative Anti-Narrative Techniques In Slaughterhouse-five

Kurt Vonnegut is widely proclaimed as one of the most thought-provoking postmodernist writers. Having written a number of works, Vonnegut became outstanding and well-known mainly thanks to his masterpiece Slaughterhouse-Five. Regarded as a semi-autobiography, Vonnegut produced this novel based on his own bitter prisoner experience during World War Two. However, the novel was not instantly accomplished until more than twenty years later, when the Vietnam War in the name of anti-communism was raging along with domestic racial conflicts, and the skyrocketing development of science and technology alienated human beings farther away from humanity. To Vonnegut, the cruelty of the war, the ruthless destructiveness of firebombing, the vulnerability of human life, the loss of human dignity, plunged people into the abyss of despair and depression. The traditional narrative form could barely reflect and represent such a fragmented world. Vonnegut pioneered in his novel a new narrative form, which can be called anti-narrative, to present a world torn asunder.The thesis attempts to make a detailed analysis of the anti-narrative techniques in Slaughterhouse-Five in association with their underlying meaning. One of the most evident anti-narrative techniques in the novel is the use of non-linear narrative. In the novel, Billy’s time travel justifies the non-linear narrative, which, on one hand, is in line with the fragmented world without order, and on the other hand reveals the uncertainty and instability of the postmodern man, thus strengthening the aesthetic effect of the novel.Besides the non-linear narrative technique, Vonnegut’s innovation is also embodied in the three other aspects:his authorial intrusion into the story, narrative repetition and indeterminacy. Vonnegut deliberately shows the process of his writing and reminds the readers of his presence now and then throughout the narration, which further blurs the reality and the fiction. Moreover, his presence also provides an effective backdrop for Billy. Another recurrent device adopted by Vonnegut is the narrative repetition, which on one hand successfully links the plot; on the other hand, conveys a message of hopelessness:living is in infinite replays without getting anywhere. Besides, the novel is full of narrative indeterminacy, construction and deconstruction rolled into one, which presents the very essential feature of anti-narrative, that is, the questioning of truth.This essential feature is particularly manifested in deconstruction of the traditional war narrative. Instead of a praise of the heroic spirit, the novel presents anti-heroes, who are hardly concerned about the consequence of war, with no courage or power.Seeing such a hopeless world where people find it hard to be given a reason to live, Vonnegut does not lose faith in humanity. After all, the very act of writing of this work is a very humanitarian one. Hope will not perish but only be suspended by death. Imagination of happiness dances unswervingly to the inevitable death. When the voice of the man is muffled by dehumanization, either of war or of technology, there arises a conscious call for humanity in the depth of his heart, always.