Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five; or The Children's Crusade

Jude Meche (Louisiana State University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1969

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Metafiction
Novel

Resources

Part Science Fiction, part Meta-text, Slaughterhouse-Five is Kurt Vonnegut’s most famous novel and represents perhaps his most successful fusion of popular culture, popular genres, postmodern technique, and current events into the irreverent, parodic, but also lamenting style that has become its author’s signature.

The novel’s title – Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death – refers, first, to the Dresden slaughterhouse where Billy Pilgrim hides during the Allied bombing of the German city during the second World War. Vonnegut’s choice of the subtitle “The Children’s Crusade” immediately makes clear his opinion of war by tying Billy Pilgrim’s experiences …

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1320 words

Citation: Meche, Jude. "Slaughterhouse Five; or The Children's Crusade". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 October 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2017, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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