7/7/2023 0 Comments Mother night kurt vonnegutQ: In your view, what effect does Vonnegut achieve for Mother Night by surrounding Campbell with this disturbing but ultimately absurd crew of fascists?Ī: I might switch your question around a bit-so that the fascists in Mother Night are considered absurd but ultimately disturbing. Joyce was captured near the end of the war and executed for treason in England in January of 1946. During the war years, he also worked to help recruit British prisoners-of-war into a unit called the British Free Corps. He moved to Berlin at the outbreak of war, where he got a job working for German radio’s English service. When his family moved to England after the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, Joyce became deeply involved in fascist politics. to Irish parents, Joyce moved back to Ireland when he was three, where his Catholic family remained loyal to Britain and staunchly anti-Republican. Who was Lord Haw-Haw?Ī: Lord Haw-Haw was the nickname of William Joyce, a real-life Nazi radio propagandist during World War Two. Q: In several interviews, Vonnegut mentioned that Howard W. Vonnegut’s character seemed so cartoonish and outlandish that it was hard to believe he had an actual historical counterpart. Both men were known as the “Black Fuhrer of Harlem.” I was immediately intrigued. Tell us about your research and how you came to write the essay.Ī: I first became interested in writing the essay because I happened to read something about Sufi Abdul Hamid, a religious mystic and political activist who lived in Harlem during the 1930s, and who served as the historical model for Robert Sterling Wilson in the novel. With the exception of Father Coughlin, these relatively obscure American fascists have faded from historical view. Q: In “American Fascism and Mother Night,” you draw connections between the characters in the novel and several historical figures from the 1930’s and 1940’s. Professor Farrell shared her thoughts with The Daily Vonnegut. Campbell Jr. and several figures from American history. Professor Susan Farrell, in an essay presented at the American Literature Association Conference in 2016, explored the relationship between the assorted fascists connected to Howard W. Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night, originally published as a paperback original in 1961, continues to resonate with its times.
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