The Birss Memorial Program at RWU celebrates Kurt Vonnegut’s famous anti-war novel with a series of events open to the public

Rodrigues, Jill

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DOCS@RWU

Roger Williams UniversityDOCS@RWUFeatured News Story The Week at Roger2-6-2019Exploring Vonnegut and “Slaughterhouse-Five”Jill RodriguesRoger Williams UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_newsPart of the Higher Education CommonsThis News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The Week at Roger at DOCS@RWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in FeaturedNews Story by an authorized administrator of DOCS@RWU. For more information, please contact mwu@rwu.edu.Recommended CitationRodrigues, Jill, "Exploring Vonnegut and “Slaughterhouse-Five”" (2019). Featured News Story. 562.https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_news/5623/5/2019 Exploring Vonnegut and “Slaughterhouse-Five” | Roger Williams Universityhttps://www.rwu.edu/news/news-archive/exploring-vonnegut-and-slaughterhouse-five 1/3 News ArchiveExploring Vonnegut and “Slaughterhouse-Five”The Birss Memorial Program at RWU celebrates Kurt Vonnegut’s famous anti-war novelwith a series of events open to the publicFebruary 6, 2019 By Jill Rodrigues '05BRISTOL, R.I. – How do you make sense of war? Of the atrocities that humans are capable of doing to one another?Or the fact that we seem to endlessly repeat the past in our present, and will continue to do so in our future?Many great writers have struggled with these di cult questions, including Kurt Vonnegut who made it the focus of hisgreatest work, Slaughterhouse-Five. An ardent paci st, he produced an un inching account of the fallacy andfoolishness of war, writing: “There is nothing intelligent to tell about a massacre.”In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Slaughterhouse-Five, the Roger Williams University community will explorethe darkly comic, anti-war protest that made it both to the top of the New York Times bestseller list and on theAmerican Library Association’s all-time banned books list. As part of the annual Professor John Howard Birss, Jr.Memorial Program at RWU, the campus community will examine Vonnegut’s most famous novel through a series ofevents, including an exhibition at the University Library, a reading group discussion, and a panel discussion featuringthe author’s daughter and two local authors.“Slaughterhouse-Five has remained a perennial read for college students because of its masterful mix of humor,pathos, outrage and, in the end, its invocation of the enduring quality of human hope and decency,” according to theBirss Memorial Program committee. “It is a remarkable work that remains timely and reads as freshly now as on itspublication day 50 years ago.”Published in 1969, Slaughterhouse-Five tells the story of a World War II infantryman who survives the Allied bombingof Dresden and tries to make sense of the a ermath of his life. Vonnegut’s masterpiece, part autobiographical andpart science  ction, employs his signature charm and irreverent humor while tackling the universal themes of thehorrors of war and the reality that wars are o en fought by young men more akin to children. It resonated deeply witha generation protesting the Vietnam War, and quickly became a nationwide best-seller.The Birss Memorial Program o ers students a variety of ways to engage in a deeper study of the text, through aliterature course and two fellowships open to students in the Honors Program. As Birss Fellows, Nicole Andreson andZachary Santoro worked with a faculty member and library archivist gaining hands-on experience in learning how toresearch an important work of literature and create a literary exhibition.3/5/2019 Exploring Vonnegut and “Slaughterhouse-Five” | Roger Williams Universityhttps://www.rwu.edu/news/news-archive/exploring-vonnegut-and-slaughterhouse-five 2/3As part of that experience, Andreson and Santoro traveled with RWU Collection Management Librarian ChristineFagan to Indianapolis to conduct archival research, document noteworthy artifacts, and select the pieces for RWU’sexhibit that would best tell the story of the author, his work, and set the historical context. They pored through theVonnegut archive at Indiana University’s Lilly Library, and visited the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library.Nicole Andreson (le ) and Zachary Santoro (right) examine artifacts with Christine Fagan in theVonnegut archive.From their  ndings in the archive, Fagan curated the exhibition that opens at the University Library at 4:30 p.m. onThursday. Andreson and Santoro will serve as docents to share their knowledge of Vonnegut and his work withguests during the exhibition opening.“As a writer looking at all his early dra s, I gained a lot of insight into the writing process and revision process bylooking at an author’s  rst dra s – seeing what he adds and subtracts, and how the dra s change over time,” saidAndreson, a creative writing major.As a criminal justice and cybersecurity double major, Santoro said he was excited to get more exposure to literature.“In the archive, we saw 16 dra s of the  rst chapter of his book and he wrote each one very di erently. We got to seethings he was drawing, things he was reading and things he was writing. We saw who he was as a person and awriter. That was interesting to me as an academic and scholar, and it opened my mind a little bit more to literature.”This type of immersive literary experience develops students’ critical thinking and analytic skills, according to AdamBraver, who teaches the Birss literature course.“They’re learning to engage deeply with a subject, investigate it from all sides and  nd ways into something they mayhave not imagined was there and to see all of its possibilities,” Braver said.Join the Celebration of VonnegutEach year the Birss Memorial Program celebrates a great American writer, inviting the campus community and greatercommunity to read and open a dialogue about an important work of literature or poetry. The events are free and opento the public, including:3/5/2019 Exploring Vonnegut and “Slaughterhouse-Five” | Roger Williams Universityhttps://www.rwu.edu/news/news-archive/exploring-vonnegut-and-slaughterhouse-five 3/3Exhibition Opening at the University Library Thursday, February 7 4:30 p.m. University Library entrance & Mary Te t White Cultural Center Join a celebration of the library exhibition, “Kurt Vonnegut & Slaughterhouse-Five,” and view artifacts on display fromthe national Vonnegut archive. The exhibit includes manuscript pages from multiple dra s of the author’s novel,manuscript notes, Vonnegut’s signature “doodles” and graphic art, photographs, book cover illustrations fromforeign versions of the novel, the author’s correspondence to friends and publishers, articles about the author and hiswork, and fan letters. The exhibit will be on display during library hours through March 31. A satellite exhibit is on display at Rogers FreeLibrary, 525 Hope St., Bristol.Reading Group Discussion Wednesday, February 27 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Rogers Free Library, 525 Hope St., Bristol Two sessions of a community-wide discussion of the book, hosted by Bristol’s public library.Keynote Panel – Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse-Five: Fi y Years On, and So It Goes Thursday, February 28 4:30 p.m. School of Law – Appellate Courtroom 283 Featuring Rick Moody, Ginger Strand and Nanette Vonnegut, this panel discussion will o er a variety of perspectiveson the author and his work. Rick Moody is the author of six novels, including The Ice Storm and Hotels of NorthAmerica. He teaches at Brown University. Ginger Strand is an author and writer of narrative non ction, including TheBrothers Vonnegut: Science and Fiction in the House of Magic. She has published essays and  ction in Harper’s, TheNew Yorker, Tin House, and The New York Times. Nanette Vonnegut is an illustrator and the author of Kurt VonnegutDrawings, a retrospective of her father’s art. Her artwork and writing have appeared in Take Magazine, The NewYorker, and the Hu ngton Post. Co-sponsored by the Professor John Howard Birss Memorial Fund and the Mary Te t White Endowment.For more resources about Vonnegut's life and career, explore the University Library's Lib Guide, created by LibraryOutreach & Communications Coordinator Hannah Goodall.ACADEMICS CIVIC SCHOLARS LIFE @ RWU FEINSTEIN SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, ART AND EDUCATION

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Exploring Vonnegut and “Slaughterhouse-Five”

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