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Bluebeard (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)

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Bluebeard is Kurt Vonnegut's most extensive examination of artistic endeavor, namely painting by abstract expressionists, but in reality all artistic activity, including literature. Although precursors of this artistic meditation are elements of earlier works, including the questioning of the truth-telling capacity of literature in Cat's Cradle, nowhere else has Vonnegut directly faced the fundamental issue of whether art at its highest is representational of reality or is a self-enclosed, nonrepresentational medium for presentation of the artist's emotions. The narrator,...

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