SPECULATIVE REALISM AND DEREALIZATION IN VONNEGUT’S SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE AND JEMISIN’S THE FIFTH SEASON

Abstract

This paper examines the psychological phenomenon of derealization and how this is manifested in Speculative Realism in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) and in N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season (2015). The article uses Quentin Meillassoux's Speculative Realism as a framework to examine the concept of alternative realities as it is presented in these novels, and uses close reading as a method to explore how derealization is used to depict alternative realities. The study focuses on the effects of the derealization process on the experience of the protagonists in the event of trauma and on the destabilization of the ontological realities by Speculative Realism. The protagonists' worlds in both texts are indeterminate, and there are existential and ontological questions at stake. The novels focus on ontological instability, trauma, and subjectivity and the breakdown of linear temporality. They express the impact of outside crises on perception and the destabilization of reality through speculative frameworks. This study argues that the derealization in both novels is a reflection of Meillassoux's principle of possibilities outstripping human relationships. It contributes to the conversation at the intersection of philosophy, psychology and speculative fiction by exploring the impact ontological instability has on the human experience. Last, it makes derealization a literary tool, offering means for future literary investigators to investigate the psychological impact of derealization in speculative fiction and to create fractured realities outside of the literary paradigm.