Description
Book SynopsisKurt Vonnegut: Myth and Science in the Postmodern World attempts to understand, in Vonnegut's novels, how Darwin's theory of evolution functions as a cosmogonic myth that is widely accepted in order to explain why the world is as it is and why things happen as they do, to provide a rationale for social customs and observances, and to establish the sanctions for the rules by which Vonnegut's characters conduct their lives. Moreover, this study deals with how and why Kurt Vonnegut's fiction represents the changing human image resulting from Darwinism. The book''s theoretical approach is based primarily on ideas from myth criticism and complemented by treatises on evolution.
Table of ContentsCopyright Acknowledgments – Acknowledgments – Introduction – Chapter One: Darwinism, Social Darwinism, and Mythology – Mythology and Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection in Galápagos – The Principles of an Evolutionary Mythology in Galápagos – The Sirens of Titan: Darwin, Einstein, and the Cosmological Connection – Sirens of Titan: Quantum Mechanics, Einstein, and the In-Complete Story – Slaughterhouse-Five: Einstein, Natural Selection and the Unified Story – Nazi Mythology and Totalitarian Minds in Mother Night – Adapting to the Evolutionary Mythology in Mother Night – The Myth of the Two Monsters in Breakfast of Champions – Evolutionary Mythology in the Writings of Kurt Vonnegut.
