“All This Happened, More or Less”: The Science Fiction of Trauma in Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut struggled for years to depict his memories of Dresden's infamous firebombing in 1945, due in part to the fact that no specific medical discourse yet existed regarding psychological trauma. This article explores how Vonnegut found a unique way to recount an experience that lies outside the bounds of normative human consciousness by turning to the generic characteristics of science fiction. By paying particular attention to the familiar/unfamiliar binary intrinsic to science fiction, Vonnegut finds the terminology and structure to narrate the bizarre, frightening experience of trauma in general and traumatic memory in particular.