Joseph Heller & Catch 22

More on Catch 22
• Contents: • The novel focuses on a bombardier named Yossarian who, after flying 60-some bombing missions, is sick of the war and afraid of death, and desperately wants to go home. There is a set number of missions required before discharge, but every time Yossarian comes close to completing his duty, the number is raised, and he has to fly again.
His writing career
• No Laughing Matter (1986), written with Speed Vogel, was a surprisingly cheerful account of Heller's experience as a victim of Guillain-Barré syndrome. His next book (1988) was the satirical and experimental historical fiction Picture This. In 1994, he returned with Closing Time - a sequel to Catch-22, depicting the current lives of its heroes. Now And Then (1998) is Heller's autobiographical work, evocation of his boyhood home. Heller died of a heart attack at his home on Long Island on December 13, 1999. His last novel, Portrait Of The Artist As An Old Man (2000) published posthumously , was about a successful novelist who seeks an inspiration for his book.
Black humor in Catch-22
• Catch-22 is unquestioning representative work of black humor. • The fearful beauty of Catch-22 can be interpreted with the following characters: • 1. Tragic content with comic form • The humourous effect comes from the disharmony between form and content. The cruelty of life is expressed with tears, bitterness, and people‟s feeling of fragility before the absurd world.
Joseph Heller & Catch 22
• Joseph Heller(1923-1999), is an American writer, who gained world fame with his satirical, anti-war novel CATCH-22 (1961), set in the World War II Italy. The book was partly based on Heller's own experiences and influenced among others Robert Altman's comedy M*A*S*H, and the subsequent long-running TV series, set in the Korean War. The phrase "catch-22" has entered the English language to signify a no-win situation, particularly one created by a law, regulation or circumstance.
Joseph Heller&Catch-22
Presenter: Xiong Li
Joseph Heller
index
• His life experience • His writing career • Catch-22 • contents • theme • black humor in this novel • reviews
His writing career
• Heller waited 13 years before publishing his next novel the darker and sombre Something Happened (1974). It portrayed a corporation man Bob Slocum, who suffers from insomnia and almost smells the disaster mounting toward him. He does not share Yossarian's rebelliousness, but he acts cynically as a "wolf among a pack of wolves". Heller's play-within-a-play, We Bombed New Haven (1968), was written in part to express his protest against the Vietnam war. It was produced on Broadway and ran for 86 performances. Catch-22 has also been dramatized. It was first performed at the John Drew Theater in East Hampton, New York, July 13, 1971.
His works
• • • • • Autobiographies Now And Then (1998). Plays We Bombed in New Haven (1967) Clevinger's Trial (1973)
Summary
• Heller‟s works are characterized by a satirical sense of the absurd, speaking out against the military-industrial complex and those organized institutions which seem to manipulate people‟s lives in the name of reason or morality.
His works
• • • • • • • • • Novels: Catch-22 (1961) Something Happened (1974) Good As Gold (1979) God Knows (1984) No Laughing Matter with Speed Vogel (1986) Picture This (1988) Closing Time (1994) Portrait Of The Artist As An Old Man (2000)
More on the book
• Theme: • Catch-22 is a brilliant satirical critique of a number of modern social phenomena. It is generally referred to as an antiwar novel, but Heller's criticisms extend beyond the absurdity of war to capitalism itself and the social relations that arise from it. Catch-22 stands as a strong protest against the conditions of modern society.
His writinБайду номын сангаас career
• Heller's later works include Good As Gold (1979), where the protagonist Bruce Gold tries to regain the Jewishness he has lost. Readers regarded the work as a return to puns and verbal games familiar from Heller's first novel. God Knows (1984) was a modern version of the story of King David and an allegory of what it is like for a Jew to survive in a hostile world.
His life experience
• Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn, New York, as the son of poor Jewish parents. At the age of nineteen, Heller enlisted as an air force bombardier in Italy. Experiences that he had during World War II formed the basis for Catch22. After the war he studied English at the University of Southern California and New York University. In 1949 he received his M.A. from Columbia University. Before Catch-22 was published in 1961, Heller taught at a number of institutions, including the City College of New York, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania.