Reading Catch-22

Paul Mcdonald

Description

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Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• European

Informations

• Publié par: Humanities eBooks
• Date de parution: 11 janvier 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781847602008
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Reading Catch-22 a literature insight from Humanities-Ebooks

Paul McDonald

Literature Insights General Editor : C W R D Moseley

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ReadingCatch-22

A Literature Insight

Paul McDonald

HEB ☼ Humanities-Ebooks, LLP

© Paul McDonald, 2012

He Author has asserted hIs rIght to be IdentIied as the author of thIs Work In accordance wIth the CopyrIght, DesIgns and Patents Act 1988.

FIrst publIshed byHumanities-Ebooks, LLP, TIrrIl all, TIrrIl, PenrIth CA10 2JE

Cover Image © Sean Gladwell - FotolIa.com

He Pdf Ebook Is avaIlable to prIvate purchasers from http://www.humanItIes- ebooks.co.uk and to lIbrarIes from EBSCO and MyILIbrary.com.

ïSBN 978-1-84760-200-8 Pdf Ebook ïSBN 978-1-84760-201-5 KIndle Ebook ïSBN 978-1-4716-221541-2 Paperback

Contents

1. Introduction

2. A Biography of Joseph Heller 2.1. Early Life 2.2. Heller as a Soldier 2.3. Heller after the War 2.4. Finding a Voice 2.5. The Genesis of Catch 22 2.6. Catch-22 is Published 2.7. The Cultural Moment of Catch-22 2.8 Heller after Catch-22 3. Literary strategies 3.1. Humour in Catch-22 3.2. The Structure and Realism in Catch-22 3.3. Inuences 4.Catch-22- Sequential Development and Analysis 4.1. Chapters One to Six 4.2. Chapters Seven to Thirteen 4.3. Chapters Fourteen to Twenty 4.4. Chapters Twenty One to Twenty Seven 4.5. Chapters Twenty Eight to Thirty Five 4.6. Chapters Thirty Six to Forty Two 5. InterpretingCatch-22 5.1. Yossarian as Individualist Hero 5.2. Yossarian and Contemporary America 5.3. Yossarian as Mythic Hero 5.4. Yossarian as Postmodern Hero.

7

8 8 9 10 11 13 15 16 18 21 21 23 26 30 30 34 36 41 46 50 56 56 59 61 64

5.5. Yossarian as the Hero of a Bad Novel 5.6. Yossarian as an Old Man: Closing Time 6. Bibliography 6.1. Other Relevant Books by Heller 6.2. Catch-22 Film 6.3. Books about Heller 6.4. Books on Modern American Writing 6.5. Online Material A Note on the Author

67 70 75 75 75 76 77 77 79

1. Introduction

 ReadingCatch-22 7

Catch-22is one of the most successful books in history, selling over ten million copies. Currently its average annual sales are roughly 85,000. It is considered to be a key contribution to American letters, and continues to attract a huge amount of critical attention from scholars. Few books can boast this level of signiîcance, and fewer still can claim to have invented a term that is recognisable across the English speaking world. Despite its staggering success,Catch- 22a challenging, occasionally bewildering novel that demands is close attention. This guide is designed to help readers navigate their way through the book, understand something of its context, and learn about some of the ways in which it has been interpreted in the half- century since its publication.

2. A Biography of Joseph Heller

2.1. Early Life

The author ofCatch-22was born in Coney Island, New York on 1 May 1923 to Russian-Jewish parents, Lena and Isaac Heller. Isaac died when Heller was 4, which meant that he, and his two older half- siblings, Sylvia and Lee, grew up in relative poverty. Despite this set back, his childhood seems to have been a happy one. Coney Island in the 20s and 30s was quite an exciting place for a young boy, with its fairground attractions, and the ocean close at hand. It seems to have been an ideal environment for Heller to develop his sense of fun, and his fondness for bizarre humour. He was certainly something of a daredevil, attracted to dangerous games such as swimming far out into the Atlantic, a feat at which he risked his life on several occasions. He also had a vivid imagination, sensing from an early age that he might have the makings of a writer. He was strongly drawn to stories, and the îrst to have a major impact on him was a prose translation of Homer’sIliad, which he read over and over when he was young. Many of his own early tales are inuenced by this, as well as by the very short twist-in the-tale stories found in places likeCollier’smagazine, copies of which were supplied to him by his older brother and sister. As an adolescent he began reading Damon Runyon, and humourists such as P.G.Wodehouse and Robert Benchley, who appealed to the young man’s developing fondness for comedy and satire. He admits in his memoir,Now and Then(1998), that his early attempts at writing were ‘spectacularly immature 1 and inept,’ but he soon felt conîdent enough to begin submitting to journals. Aged 16 he submitted his îrst piece for publication, a

1 Joseph Heller.Now and Then: A Memoir from Coney Island to Here. (London: Simon & Schuster, 1998) 42