Tracing the trajectory of a
speculative novel: A tripartite analysis of Cat’s Cradle bridging
Heinlein, Atwood, and Oziewicz
Jiji P. V.
ABSTRACT
Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle is a postmodern novel
that is widely considered as a work of speculative fiction. This
study employs a tripartite analysis of the novel to trace the
trajectory of speculative fiction from a mid-20th Century genre to a
cultural field in the Contemporary period. Cat’s Cradle will be
analysed through the lens of Heinlein, Atwood and Oziewicz to
demonstrate how the theoretical interpretation and application of
speculative fiction has drifted from man-technology interaction
during the 1950s to ethical and social concerns about technological
proliferation in the 21st C. The study observes a transition from
pure structural analysis to a study of the function, purpose and
impact of the supercategory of speculative fiction on popular
imagination today.
Key words: cultural field, man-technology interaction, speculative,
supercategory.
