This paper synthesises two complementary literary‑historical studies to examine how Kurt Vonnegut’s mid‑century fiction engages posthumanist inquiry through environmental, ethical, and speculative narrative. By ecocritical close readings of Cat’s Cradle, God Bless You, Mr Rosewater, Breakfast of Champions, and Slaughterhouse‑Five, it traces Vonnegut’s transformation of Cold‑War trauma—most notably the Dresden firestorm—into environmental parables: ice‑nine dramatizes the risks of oversimplifying ecosystems, while Rosewater’s philanthropic model embodies post-growth and ethical redistribution. These narratives resonate with contemporary degrowth and posthumanist scholarship, showing literature’s capacity to critique petro‑capitalism and imagine alternative social imaginations. Methodologically, this study integrates literary analysis, environmental history, and narrative‑visualisation theory to map Vonnegut’s speculative fiction onto planetary boundaries discourse. The paper argues that speculative fiction functions as a bridge between arts and sciences literacies, offering a posthuman perspective that integrates humanities and empirical data—including graphs and charts—to reconceptualize human–nonhuman relations. By situating Vonnegut’s cautionary tales within a data‑rich framework, the study deepens literary interpretation and models an interdisciplinary approach for posthumanist and sustainability‑oriented research.

Authors:
Junsheng Zeng, Rikkyo University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Junsheng Zeng's main area of research is Kurt Vonnegut and the ethical and ecological issues in his works. Recently, he has been studying Vonnegut's early works, mainly on Cat’s Cradle and its posthuman concern.

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