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Negative emotion as political performance in Kurt Vonnegut’s works: Affective forms of eesistance in science fiction

Author Affiliations

  • 1Department of English and Cultural Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

Res. J. Language and Literature Sci., Volume 10, Issue (2), Pages 30-35, May,19 (2023)

Abstract

The world of science-fiction articulates itself through its inherent ‘estrangement’. It is in the same vein as DarkoSuvin’s idea, wherein, he states an ‘imaginative alternative to the author’s empirical experience’ as the main device of a science-fiction narrative. Furthermore, the narrative in science-fiction works deeply engages itself with emotions alongside the speculative elements. This paper examines negative emotions and their political affect, as portrayed in the works of Kurt Vonnegut. It investigates 1) the relationship between the ontology of state power and the fearful emotions of terror and control, and 2) the role of these emotions as instruments of resistance against the incontrovertible state. It studies political inertia of negative emotions under authoritarian State in Vonnegut’s works.Characters inthese select Vonnegut’s short stories (Welcome to the Monkey House, Harrison Bergeron, 2BR02B) exercise extensive affective agency in their inner and social lives. In Slaughter house-Five, Vonnegut engages Billy Pilgrim’s emotions (a reaction to State violence) to create a political subject out of him. The paper also focuses on how the affective life of characters may become a political tool for the transformation of political scenario through its resistance of biopower networks, taking from the ideas of Foucault (biopolitics) and Deleuze and Guattari (micro-politics).

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