Study On The Theme Of Trauma And Rebirth In Vonnegut's Short Stories

Kurt Vonnegut is an American postmodern writer,and one of the representatives of the American black humor writers.The “Trauma” and “Black Humor” have always been the important characteristics of the creations of Vonnegut.His representative work,Slaughterhouse-Five,Cats' Cradle and his short stories,While Mortals Sleep,Armageddon in Retrospect are especially prominent among his creations.By close reading of Vonnegut's novels,the author of this thesis studies the trauma and black humor of his works.Besides the trauma and black humor,the author finds that although Vonnegut has been known as the representative of the trauma literature and pessimism writer,he actually has been trying to make it up to the world,and through writing to heal himself,trying to create a new world without pain for himself,thus he can lead a new lease on life.First,the thesis introduces Kurt Vonnegut and his novels' style,and illustrates the purpose and significance of the thesis.Then the thesis mainly elaborates the theoretical basis of this article,namely "trauma literature",and discusses the current situation of domestic and foreign research on the works of Vonnegut.The thesis describes Vonnegut's family background,and analyzes the second world war and Vonnegut's experience in the bombing of Dresden.The thesis delicates the trauma of Vonnegut from his family,and the enormous trauma of the war,and the transformation of his attitude towards religion,science and technology.By the basis of text analysis,the thesis makes a detailed analysis and reading on the trauma of Vonnegut and his black humor writing.At last,the thesis analyzes how Vonnegut heals himself through writing,and creates a new world for himself in his works,thus starts a new life.Through the analysis of Vonnegut's short stories,this article illustrates the trauma of Vonnegut's work writing,black humor and his writing healing,which gives readers a deeper understanding to Vonnegut.Though Vonnegut describes the war traumas to humankind in different ways,Vonnegut is not a completely pessimist.Vonnegut heals his traumas through his writing and lets us see his rebirth in the novels.