Critical Insights

Critical acclaim eluded Kurt Vonnegut until Slaughterhouse-Five was published in 1969. An immediate best seller, it earned for the author respect from critics who had previously dismissed him as a mediocre science-fiction writer. Over the course of his career, Vonnegut was honoured as the Briggs-Copeland Lecturer at Harvard University, as a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and as the Distinguished Professor of English Prose at the City University of New York. Through his insightful and sympathetic treatment of the psychologically and morally crippled victims of the modern world, Vonnegut earned a reputation as one of the greatest humanist writers of his time.

This volume in the Critical Insights series presents a variety of new essays on the popular late-twentieth-century American novelist. For readers who are studying Vonnegut for the first time, a biographical sketch relates the details of his life and four essays survey the critical reception of his work, explore its cultural and historical contexts, situate Vonnegut among his contemporaries, and review key themes in his work. Readers seeking a deeper understanding of the writer can then move on to other original essays that explore a bevy of topics, such as major thematic trajectories in Vonnegut’s work, the significance of metafiction in Vonnegut’s works, Vonnegut’s relationship with conventional Christianity, and Vonnegut’s use of generic conventions. Works discussed include Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Hocus Pocus, Cat’s Cradle, and The Sirens of Titan. Among the contributors are Ádám T. Bogár, Charles J. Shields, Donald Morse, Peter Freese, Lara Narcisi, and Shiela Pardee.

Rounding out the volume are a chronology of Vonnegut’s life and a list of his principle publications as well as a bibliography for readers seeking to study this fascinating author in greater depth.

Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of ""Works Cited,"" along with endnotes. Finally, the volume's appendixes offer a section of useful reference resources:

• About This Volume
• Critical Context: Original Introductory Essays
• Critical Readings: Original In-Depth Essays
• Further Readings
• Detailed Bibliography
• Detailed Bio of the Editor
• General Subject Index