The Novels of Kurt Vonnegut: Imagining Being an American

This book is the first scholarly study to discuss all of Vonnegut's novels against the background of his other writing, events of the 20th century, and the vast array of Vonnegut scholarship. In his novels he speaks eloquently and succinctly for his generation of Americans--the central generation of 20th-century Americans--thus making him the representative 20th-century American writer. Morse discusses how Vennegut's novels reflect the major traumatic public and private events that have gone into imagining being an American during that century, including the Great Depression, World War II, the Bomb, Vietnam, the weakening of social institutions, the vicissitudes of marriage and family, divorce, growing old, experiencing loss, and anticipating death.

DONALD E. MORSE is Visiting Professor of American, Irish, and English Literature at the University of Debrecen, Hungary, and Professor Emeritus of English and Rhetoric at Oakland University. He is the author of numerous articles on Vonnegut and his previous books include The Fantastic in World Literature and the Arts (1987), More Real than Reality: The Fantastic in Irish Literature and the Arts (1991), and The Celebration of the Fantastic (1992), all available from Greenwood Press.