Kurt Vonnegut's a man without a country: searching for hope and optimism in a postmodernist world

Abstract EN

It is the aim of this paper to shed light on how Kurt Vonnegut responds to the complexities and absurdities of life in a man without a country (2005), by adopting a light-hearted tone that mitigates the traditional postmodernist pessimism.

in its broadest sense, postmodernism adopts a skeptical standpoint towards established truths and assumptions whose authenticity has gone unquestioned for a long time.

in Vonnegut's hands, this pessimistic stance is imbued with a humanist dimension, and a search for a glimpse of optimism in the midst of a highly fragmented and incoherent postmodernist world.

black humour, laughter, irony, a light-hearted tone and a tendency towards optimism are often the conduits he opts for to expose the inexplicable absurdities that run rife in his postmodernist world, while at the same time maintaining a hopeful outlook on life and humanity.

throughout the book, Vonnegut weaves a tapestry of his own personal views regarding disparate topics.