Kurt Vonnegut and the American Novel : A Postmodern Iconography

The novels of Kurt Vonnegut depict a profoundly absurd and distinctly postmodern world. But in this critical study, Robert Tally argues that Vonnegut himself is actually a modernist, who is less interested in indulging in the free play of signifiers than in attempting to construct a model that could encompass the American experience at the end of the twentieth century. As a modernist wrestling with a postmodern condition, Vonnegut makes use of diverse and sometimes eccentric narrative techniques (such as metafiction, collage, and temporal slippages) to project a comprehensive vision of life in the United States. Vonnegut's novels thus become experiments in making sense of the radical transformations of self and society during that curious, unstable period called, perhaps ironically, the 'American Century.' An untimely figure, Vonnegut develops a postmodern iconography of American civilization while simultaneously acknowledging the impossibility of a truly comprehensive representation.

“In the 21st century, we must approach Vonnegut with equal doses of admiration, critical intrigue, and irreverence in order to engage what Tally calls "harmless granfalloonery," or self-conscious and communal creativity for constructive purposes. He likens harmless granfalloonery to a poignant passage from Nietzsche's The Twilight of the Idols: "Maintaining cheerfulness in the midst of a gloomy affair, fraught with immeasurable responsibility, is no small feat; and yet what is needed more than cheerfulness? Nothing succeeds without high spirits having a part in it." Tally exemplifies this cheerful and harmless granfalloonery while applying the highest levels of theoretical rigor in his efforts to understand Vonnegut's postmodern iconography. Through his efforts, he uncovers the beloved author's lasting influence on contemporary critical thought and American identity.” —Wilson Taylor and Matthew Gannon, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Kurt Vonnegut and the American Novel does much to reposition Vonnegut as a major American writer. By approaching Vonnegut’s oeuvre as an integrated postmodern iconography, a strategic project bridging the gap between modernism and postmodernism, Tally reveals Vonnegut to be a serious, deeply imaginative writer whose fictions intervene in major intellectual debates—political and theoretical—that continue to impact contemporary social developments.” –Boundary 2: An International Journal of Literature and Culture