<departmental bulletin paper>
Self as Other : Schizophrenia in Slaughterhouse-Five
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Abstract | In this paper, I will consider the science fictional device of the planet Tralfamadore in Kurt Von-negut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) . Tralfamadore is the name of the planet where Billy Pilgrim, the ...protagonist of the novel, is brought after having been captured by aliens (known as Tralfamadorians) while he is travelling in time. So far scholars have suggested that the episodes on Tralfamadore express Billy's attempt to escape reality and a way to cope with his painful war experiences. The boundary be-tween reality and fantasy in his consciousness becomes blur, and the Tralfamadorian episodes, which are in fact Billy's own imaginary creations, appear very real to him. It is worth noting here that Pilgrim' s episodes on Tralfamadore reveal that he may suffer from schizophrenia. In this paper, I will argue that his abduction by the Tralfamadorians does not actually happen, and I will regard instead the scenes occurring on Tralfamadore as hallucinations provoked by his schizophrenia. My contention is that Tralfamadorian episodes are not only a way for Billy to escape from or cope with the trauma of his war experience, but can also be construed as the result of schizophrenia. In other words, there is a rupture in Billy's self that results in the formation of another self which assumes the form of the aliens called Tralfamadorians. Because of the very nature of his condition, Billy is unable to recognize this internal split, and is convinced that Tralfamadorians are real. At this point I explain why the description of Tralfamadore so strikingly resembles Billy's memories of war. Besides psychological considerations, I also consider the role of Vonnegut's fabulation to account for this resemblance.show more |
Table of Contents | 1. はじめに 2. 現実世界の外部としての「トラルファマドール」 3. スキゾフレニアと他者化した自己 4. Vonnegutの虚構意識 5. 結び 参考文献 |
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Created Date | 2021.10.07 |
Modified Date | 2021.12.13 |