Talks on Kurt Vonnegut at IUB
Sunday, 29 July 2007
Nahid Kaiser Toma
THE journey of IUB lecture series on English language and litterateur is going on smoothly and in accordance with its tradition. This month professor Dr. Syed Mazoorul Islam arrived to lecture on Kurt Vonnegut Jr. This is the first time Vonnegut is being talked publicly in Bangladesh.
Readers, hopefully, will agree with me that Syed Mazoorul Islam (widely called SIM by students and fans), a professor of the department of English, University of Dhaka, needs no formal introduction. But, I must talk about Vonnegut to be more comfortable with you.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007) is an American writer, often mentioned as the lord of chaos by reviewers and critics. His critical perspective and unique voice has consistently established him to be one of America's most socially relevant writers.
Mazoorul Islam's lecture, titled 'The Disorder of Things: A study of the novels of Kurt Vonnegut' focuses on both the thematic and stylistic features of the novels as well as sheds light on the very concept of modernism, modernity, postmodernism and what not!
At first, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) is discussed in relation with its chaotic fictional universe that abounds in wonder, coincidence, randomness and irrationality. This very book establishes Vonnegut's seemingly native perspective by which he deconstructs and demystifies American culture.
Since Vonnegut hates unquestioned admiration, he juxtaposes reality with imagination. He is an anti-technology, anti-war man whose response to the dehumanization of man is his science fictions. His deep realisation that nothing is any more sacred, that all are machines are doomed to collide, collide and collide is well established in Breakfast of Champion (1973).
Mazoorul Islam talks about the mindless game of death and destruction and the massive moral disorder portrayed in Vonnegut's work. He considers these works as the postmodernist's rebunking of history. For instance, Manzoorul Islam mentions Breakfast of Champions, a book that celebrates man's presenting a society similar to Jeremy Bantham's Panopticon. It rejects any single ordered reality and celebrates the make-belief.
This writer possesses a weird logic, a sense of order which avoids orderliness as he is tired of human gullibility and the overpowering force of ideology. Vonnegut celebrates 'harmless, comforting untruth.'
Mazoorul Islam adds that Vonnegut's uniqueness lies in the fact that he does not write from a moral pulpit the way 18th century giants did emphasizing reason and logic. Vonnegut negates any totalizing grand narrative which is, according to Jean Francois Lyotard, the main trait of the 'postmodern condition'.
After talking about the thematic aspects of Vonnegut's novels, Mazoorul Islam talks about the stylist aspect of his works. Stylistically, Vonnegut's works are as postmodern as they are thematically so. His novels are splendidly snapshots put together- without any air of totality-no beginning-middle or end, no cause-effect. For instance, Mazoorul Islam emphasizes Breakfast of Champion can be read from anywhere of the novel be it the last page, or anyone, without the slightest risk of losing the meaning. The simple felt-tip pen drawings in Breakfast of Champions, however, were what first called general attention to Vonnegut as a graphic artist. His prose style deplete those myths habitually professed as giving meaning to daily existence. For example, the news of any death in his novel is followed by 'so it goes' an expression that boldly disclaims humanity. His fragmented disjointed style reflects that meaning is illusory. His mood is often carnivalesque, his imagery grotesque.
His works possess a host of point as viewers, a device which is called, according to the Russian formalist Michael Bakhtin, heteroglassia which celebrates the multiplicity of voices and shifting perspective.
Another aspect of Vonnegut's writing Syed Mazoorul Islam highlights is his attitude to the concept of faith, humanity and sex. Divinity, to him, is a failure. He claims: man delights, not me. He is out to debunk the concept of sex. His is a deconstructive attitude to 'which to which'. He does not end his lecture in a typical way, rather he just utters: 'so it goes!'. Then starts the question-answer session when Mazoorul Islam responds to several questions on the concept of modern version and postmodernism. The event ends with endless discussions-a trait, in itself, postmodernism.
The writer teaches English
literature at Daffodil
University, Dhaka
THE journey of IUB lecture series on English language and litterateur is going on smoothly and in accordance with its tradition. This month professor Dr. Syed Mazoorul Islam arrived to lecture on Kurt Vonnegut Jr. This is the first time Vonnegut is being talked publicly in Bangladesh.
Readers, hopefully, will agree with me that Syed Mazoorul Islam (widely called SIM by students and fans), a professor of the department of English, University of Dhaka, needs no formal introduction. But, I must talk about Vonnegut to be more comfortable with you.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007) is an American writer, often mentioned as the lord of chaos by reviewers and critics. His critical perspective and unique voice has consistently established him to be one of America's most socially relevant writers.
Mazoorul Islam's lecture, titled 'The Disorder of Things: A study of the novels of Kurt Vonnegut' focuses on both the thematic and stylistic features of the novels as well as sheds light on the very concept of modernism, modernity, postmodernism and what not!
At first, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) is discussed in relation with its chaotic fictional universe that abounds in wonder, coincidence, randomness and irrationality. This very book establishes Vonnegut's seemingly native perspective by which he deconstructs and demystifies American culture.
Since Vonnegut hates unquestioned admiration, he juxtaposes reality with imagination. He is an anti-technology, anti-war man whose response to the dehumanization of man is his science fictions. His deep realisation that nothing is any more sacred, that all are machines are doomed to collide, collide and collide is well established in Breakfast of Champion (1973).
Mazoorul Islam talks about the mindless game of death and destruction and the massive moral disorder portrayed in Vonnegut's work. He considers these works as the postmodernist's rebunking of history. For instance, Manzoorul Islam mentions Breakfast of Champions, a book that celebrates man's presenting a society similar to Jeremy Bantham's Panopticon. It rejects any single ordered reality and celebrates the make-belief.
This writer possesses a weird logic, a sense of order which avoids orderliness as he is tired of human gullibility and the overpowering force of ideology. Vonnegut celebrates 'harmless, comforting untruth.'
Mazoorul Islam adds that Vonnegut's uniqueness lies in the fact that he does not write from a moral pulpit the way 18th century giants did emphasizing reason and logic. Vonnegut negates any totalizing grand narrative which is, according to Jean Francois Lyotard, the main trait of the 'postmodern condition'.
After talking about the thematic aspects of Vonnegut's novels, Mazoorul Islam talks about the stylist aspect of his works. Stylistically, Vonnegut's works are as postmodern as they are thematically so. His novels are splendidly snapshots put together- without any air of totality-no beginning-middle or end, no cause-effect. For instance, Mazoorul Islam emphasizes Breakfast of Champion can be read from anywhere of the novel be it the last page, or anyone, without the slightest risk of losing the meaning. The simple felt-tip pen drawings in Breakfast of Champions, however, were what first called general attention to Vonnegut as a graphic artist. His prose style deplete those myths habitually professed as giving meaning to daily existence. For example, the news of any death in his novel is followed by 'so it goes' an expression that boldly disclaims humanity. His fragmented disjointed style reflects that meaning is illusory. His mood is often carnivalesque, his imagery grotesque.
His works possess a host of point as viewers, a device which is called, according to the Russian formalist Michael Bakhtin, heteroglassia which celebrates the multiplicity of voices and shifting perspective.
Another aspect of Vonnegut's writing Syed Mazoorul Islam highlights is his attitude to the concept of faith, humanity and sex. Divinity, to him, is a failure. He claims: man delights, not me. He is out to debunk the concept of sex. His is a deconstructive attitude to 'which to which'. He does not end his lecture in a typical way, rather he just utters: 'so it goes!'. Then starts the question-answer session when Mazoorul Islam responds to several questions on the concept of modern version and postmodernism. The event ends with endless discussions-a trait, in itself, postmodernism.
The writer teaches English
literature at Daffodil
University, Dhaka