A New Historicist Interpretation Of Mother Night

Kurt Vonnegut(1922-2007)is a well-known American writer and is called "one of the most important American writers" by British literary writer Graham Green.Mother Night is one of the representative works of Vonnegut.In the novel,Vonnegut demonstrates American social ideology after World War II with its own unique techniques and ingenious narrative methods by reweaving the details within the historical framework,with many major events of the 20th century in the United States,including the Dresden bombing,World War II,the Gettysbzurg's Address,etc.stringed together through the memories and experiences of one person.At the same time,this historical framework provides an opportunity for this thesis to interpret Mother Night from the perspective of new historicism.So,this thesis intends to explore the social ideology of the United States after World War II and to explore the influence of the theme of reality and illusion and the theme of free will and determinism on the social ideology reflected in Mother Night.Campbell,the main character in Mother Night,is a double agent of Germany and the United States during World War II.In order to keep his ideals,he lives in his own illusion world.This thesis will explore two seemingly contradictory stances between reality and illusion,free will and determinism in Mother Nighty and interpret the ambivalence that Vonnegut reveals in his work Mother Night.In Mother Night,Vonnegut reveals to the readers the escapism of four agents towards their own consciousness and conscience,shows the capacity for good and evil in the human nature,shows the readers the fine line of the seeming opposites,and reminds the reader that perception of things should not be taken for granted.This thesis interprets and analyzes Mother Night from two aspects of new historicism criticism:"Historicity of Texts" and "Textuality of History".The perfect combination of history and fiction in Mother Night is the embodiment of "Historicity of Texts" and "Textuality of History".This thesis embodies the historicity feature of the text by analyzing the traces of the historical background in the text and the influence of historical figures on the text.The deviation of historical figures and the substitution of personal history for grand narrative are applied to illustrate the textual features of history revealed in the novel.Meanwhile,the social ideology existed at that time is studied by analyzing personal history.At the same time,this thesis interprets the post-war social ideology from the following aspects:characters escaping from reality,brutal war victims,strange bed fellows of neo-Nazis,the capacity for good and evil in the human nature.