Black Humor, a Way to Face Atrocities of the 21st Century in Kurt Vonnegut’s Fiction

Kurt Vonnegut, one of the most known writers of the 20th century American Literature, has always been more concerned with ideas than with characterization. In most of his works, Vonnegut probes the question of why people commit atrocities and how they can live with their conscience. That is why he chooses humor to make readers confront the pains and sufferings. Even though Vonnegut always denied any kind of label, we can agree that he deserves to be called a Black Humorist. The term, in fact, has caused discussions among literary scholars, especially concerning the difference between black humor and satire. But in the 1960s, Bruce Friedman wrote a book called Black Humor that includes several contemporary writers. He said that writers like J. Barth, J. Heller, K. Vonnegut and others could be considered black humorists because they make readers laugh at hopeless situations. However, nothing could explain black humor – or as he called it “gallows humor†– better than Vonnegut did, when he says in Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons: “The biggest laughs are based on the biggest disappointments and the biggest fears†. (258) Jokes and laughs in dangerous and difficult situations are found in most of his novels, like “Slaughterhouse-Five†, “Mother Night†, “Cat’s Cradle†, etc. So, Black Humor calls attention to a significant part of Vonnegut’s fiction. That is the aim of this paper: to show how he chooses comedy to face the atrocities and sufferings of 20th century.