Quest for Civic Engagement in Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle
Keywords:
subversion;, humor, culture, religion, technologyAbstract
Kurt Vonnegut (1922 – 2007) is considered as one of the greatest writers of postwar America. Besides, he is fondly remembered for the dark humour in his works, through which he opposed totalitarian regimes across the world. This paper is an attempt to probe the institutions of science and religion in his celebrated novel, Cat’s Cradle. Vonnegut’s personal war experiences make him reject all forms of ideology which claim absolute truth in his novels. In Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut conceals a complex texture beneath a deceptively simple surface using parody and the dehumanization projected in the novel.
References
Barrett, Martyn and Bruna Zani. Political and Civil Engagement – Multidisciplinary Perspectives. New York: Routledge P. 2015.
Hanuman, A.R.N. “Hope and Despair: A Carnivalesque Study of Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English 2. no.1, 2011, pp. 15-21.
Klinkowitz, Jerome. Literary Disruptions: The Making of a Post Contemporary American Fiction. University of Illinois Press. 1977.
Krim, Seymour. “Review of Jailbird Village Voice” 20 Aug. 1979: 81-2.
Lundquist, James. Kurt Vonnegut. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. 1977.
Marvin, Thomas F. Kurt Vonnegut: A Critical Companion. Westport: Greenwood Press. 2002.
Mayo, Clark. Kurt Vonnegut: The Gospel from Outer Space. San Bernardino, CA: The Borgo Press. 1977.
Ranly, Ernest W. ed. Carolyn Riley and Barbara Harte. “What are people for?” in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Detroit MI: Gale Research Company. vol.2, 1974, pp. 453-4.
Reed, Peter J. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. USA: Warner Paperback Library. 1974.
Ullrich, David. “The Function of “Oubliette” in Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle.” The Explicator 2. vol.70, no.2, 2012, pp. 149-152.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat’s Cradle. New York: Viking Press. 1963.
