How 'Slaughterhouse Five' Engages Gender Identity in the Context of Postmodernism Mia Kerrigan College

This essay will examine Vonnegut’s presentation of gender identity in relation to the postmodernism, concluding that Vonnegut uses conventions of postmodernist literature, such as a suspicion of metanarratives, intertextuality and a fragmented form, to present gender identity as something that is complex and fluid. Moreover, this essay will discuss how Vonnegut’s complex interpretation of gender identity reflects the breakdown of values in post-war America. Throughout this essay, the term ‘gender identity’ refers to an individual's “personal conception” of their own gender (Ghosh, 2015), whereas ‘sex’ refers to the distinction between “female or male especially on the basis of their reproductive organs and structures” (Merriam-Webster). Moreover, the essay discusses Vonnegut’s work in relation to postmodernism, where postmodernism is defined as a literary movement that embodies “a reaction, in the wake of the Second World War, against absolute systems of knowledge and philosophical certainty which adorned the foundations of Modernism” (Chellamuthu).

One way in which Vonnegut’s depiction of gender identity conforms to the conventions of postmodernist fiction is through his demonstration of “incredulity towards metanarratives”,...