From Postmodernism to Post-Postmodernism: Rewriting history in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five and George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo

Although rewriting history has been recognized as a literary sub-genre, it has evolved into a prominent literary technique with the rise of postmodern era. With this approach, older texts or accepted historical facts have been revisited and rewritten through the deconstruction of grand narratives. Through this process, authors endeavor to challenge readers with entirely different perspectives. In light of this, this study aims to analyze Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) and George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) as they present a new perspective on the United States' involvement in the World War II and the American Civil War. Both novels employ a postmodern narrative technique of rewriting history. As demonstrated in the postmodern novel Slaughterhouse-Five and also observed in post-postmodern novel Lincoln in the Bardo, the postmodern narrative technique of rewriting history remains influential in contemporary literary works. In this context, Kurt Vonnegut rewrites the history of the Second World War in his novel, using metafictional and science-fictional elements. In post-postmodern era, George Saunders, often regarded as modern-day Vonnegut, through the creation of a fantastical realm, employs metaffective elements to rewrite the American Civil War. Published within different literary periods, postmodernism and post-postmodernism, both novels challenge the grand narrative, critique these historical epochs and underscore the value of empathy, kindness and humanity. While both literary works share a thematic focus on these values, the evolution of the narrative technique from postmodernism to post-postmodernism is apparent as Slaughterhouse-Five adopts an ironical and detached tone, whereas Lincoln in the Bardo uses a constructive and sentimental tone.