Published Paper Details:

The evolution of modernism as a transformative literary movement, and the subsequent transitional shift from modernist to postmodernist paradigms, finds its intellectual roots in the Enlightenment movement of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The philosophers and thinkers of that era advocated for a radical shift in the human perception of the world, prioritizing objective, rational methodologies of thought over the adherence to perceived delusions or superstitions. Following this trajectory, modernist writers systematically rejected traditionalist or conventional notions of art, instead generating literary works characterized by a callous, bleakly realistic, and often starkly unembellished perspective. Postmodernism, however, ventures significantly further in its sophisticated depiction of 'reality,' as the writers associated with this period intentionally replaced traditional illusionism with complex modes of abstraction. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. occupies an exceptionally prominent position at the absolute forefront of postmodern art due to his deliberate destabilization of the dominant discourses of religion, science, technology, and historical progress. He achieves this through the intricate intertwining of diverse narrative techniques situated within the specific rhetorical framework of black humor. The present study endeavors to critically examine the specific metafictional elements that Vonnegut employs throughout Cat's Cradle, focusing specifically on how these techniques facilitate a profound defamiliarization of the real. It is this systematic disruption of the reader's expectations and the subversion of established truths that ultimately imparts a distinctiveness and an enduring postmodern resonance to his literary work.