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Slaughterhouse five luminous definition10/4/2023 ![]() In comparison the writer controls only his own fictional reality, whereas the historian’s realm is reality. Just like historians are trying to give sense to history, authors of fiction intend to make sense of things that seem to be chaotic or unintelligible and by that create something new in which factual truth and the necessity of reality become unimportant. The common history of a culture is of vital importance, because it is one of the main aspects – apart from religion, language, etc. According to Engler the ‘reality’ that is presented to the reader, “is the product of a complex process by which traditionally encoded images and texts structure our perceptions and determine the models by which we construct our notions of self and external reality.” Although historiography is liable to interpretation, the history of a culture is important for the individual, because history is intelligible and comprehensive and man is a sense making being. But since art is not obliged and willing to provide a perfect copy of reality, it possesses the freedom to deliver its message in a concealed way. If the image of the past is influenced by culture, which means that different cultural circles put emphasis on different aspects of historical events, there will always be more than truth. So the denial of ultimate truth in representation led to the so-called postmodern crisis of representation. A sceptical relativism has challenged the authenticity of historiography and its claim for truth. In order to understand historiographic metafiction, it is necessary to know about the developments that changed the view on representation in the past decades. Historiographic metafiction tries to combine the best of two worlds that means it combines fictional elements, which it generously uses, and blends it with historical events, which may provide a framework that is filled with fictitious actions and protagonists thus it unites the ‘world’ and literature. This definition given by Linda Hutcheon describes probably best what is meant by historiographic metafiction, a term coined by herself. In order to distinguish this paradoxical beast from traditional historical fiction, I would like to label it “historiographic metafiction.” In the postmodern novel the conventions of both fiction and historiography are simultaneously used and abused, installed and subverted, asserted and denied. The term postmodernism, when used in fiction, should, by analogy, best be reserved to describe fiction that is at once metafictional and historical in its echoes of the texts and contexts of the past. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five as Historiographic Metafiction 1. All citations from the novel and the pages indicated in brackets are taken from the edition cited below. The third part will deal with intertextual elements in the novel. But how is history represented in Slaughterhouse-Five? This will be the second part of the analysis that will attempt to find answers why Vonnegut wrote the novel the way he did. I will take a closer look at the narrative frame and especially the concept of time Vonnegut used in the novel. ![]() ![]() In postmodern literature and, of course, especially in historiographic metafiction, authors tried to find new ways of telling stories and particularly representing history. If there is fiction in scholarly historiography, where is the difference between that and a novel that deals with history? This term paper will try to give an answer to that question and examine features and characteristics of historiographic metafiction, which eventually will be applied to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. This assumption leads us to historiographic metafiction, a style of writing that emerged during the postmodern era. So there were and always will be fictional elements and interpretations in the reports and writings about past events. As a consequence, historiography can only try to create an image, as true and original as possible, but is never able to depict everything that happened as it actually was in its full scope. One topic or event will never be identically described by two historians, even if they are given the very same materials and sources to work with. The representation of history depends mainly on the perspective, attitude and cultural background of the beholder which at the same time marks the major flaw of historiography. Historiographic Metafictional Elements in Slaughterhouse-Five ![]() Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Fiveas Historiographic MetafictionĢ.
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