Traumatic Memory and Artistic Representation in Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Heller’s Catch-22
Traumatic Memory and Artistic Representation in Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Heller’s Catch-22

Summary/Abstract: The two novels and the two authors display remarkable similarities. Both authors had trouble turning their war experience into fiction, and trauma theories are able to shed light on the ways in which memory and artistic representation work together to come up with outstanding narratives. The two books artistically transform such traumatic episodes as the fire-bombing of Dresden for Vonnegut’s novel and the helplessness of a war comrade witnessing his friend’s death in the air during a flying combat mission in Heller’s book. Both in the case of the “traumatized” authors themselves and in the case of the two novels’ protagonists, the distinction that LaCapra makes between acting out and working through while addressing the impact of trauma is worth considering. What follows will focus on the relevance of aspects of traumatic experience and their artistic reflection in these two novels, both at character level and at the more general level of the narrative.

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