Transrealism: A Method of Narrative(The World Treated as Mankind’s Plaything: A Transrealistic Reading of Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle)

Regarding realism as a non-significant and marginal movement of contemporary literature, the authors tried to modify it. Coined and introduced by Rudy Rucker, transrealism is a postmodern movement that consists of fantasy and science-fiction elements as well as realistic features, not to mention that the realism which is used in transrealism is not the sheer one. Time travel, new inventions, alternative worlds, aliens and supernatural elements can be observed in transrealistic works. Satire is another pivotal element of transrealism alongside the aforementioned features. It is employed in order to criticize society and mankind’s follies. Metafiction is considered as a method of narrative in postmodern stories which is also observed in transrealistic works. In metafiction the narrator tries to indicate that the story is artificial. Kurt Vonnegut’s apocalyptic novel, Cat’s Cradle, can be regarded as a transrealistic literary work. It indicates elements of science-fiction, fantasy, as well as satire, and employs them as tools for repressing inhuman deeds. Employing science-fictional, fantasy and apocalyptic literature features, the transrealist author provides a nonrealistic atmosphere. Synchronically, it represents realism. This dichotomy generates an ambiguity and a suspension on the border between the nonrealistic and realistic world. This paper intends to examine the features of transrealism and its objectives in Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. Besides, it attempts to demonstrate the diversity and complexity of the contemporary narratology by highlighting the narrative features of the very novel.