This is a study of the use of language in Joseph Heller's novels Catch-22, Something Happened, Good as Gold, God Knows and Picture This. Heller's fiction is characterized by self-negating sentences and logic, a repetitive story line and circular structure. Each novel concerns the relationship between people and language, but the relationship invariably is circular and inherently non-progressive. The separation between people and language, analogous to the separation between existence and expression, is the basis for Heller's thematics. / Joseph Heller is a novelist who writes about language. Heller's novels all contain or evoke a common system characterized by self-containment and self-reference. In this system, language and literature are self-referential. It is implicit within Heller's writing that literature is a self-contained, non-progressive system, and consequently, it cannot yield a conclusive resolution. The self-contained system of his novels becomes analogous for literature, language, and finally knowledge. Definitive knowledge, being a derivative of language, is impossible. Eventually, Heller's fiction allows no final resolution because of the inconclusive nature of language itself.

Thesis (M.A.). / Written for the Dept. of English. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/07/28). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Liberty University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

This paper examines social relationships and pressures of contemporary society as shown in Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22. Through a brief study of conceptual limitations within Heller's characters it demonstrates that they exist within a totally self-enclosed system divorced from reality but supported by complex justifications. Within this social matrix is seen the heroic strivings of Yossarian to save a world he believes to have gone mad. As the study progresses, it shows that Yossarian and his friends do not in fact share the same conceptual basis as their apparent society. Their satiric efforts are seen to be useless to a society convinced of its own justifications for evil, and destructive to their own potentialities for human-beingness. The ultimate goal of society is seen to be a physical and spiritual fascism in which no dissent is possible. Escape and death are shown to be the true alternatives for those who would maintain their individuality and ethics. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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Thesis (M.A.) -- Memorial University of Newfoundland. 1973. / Typescript. Bibliography : leaves [268]-288. Also available online.

Thesis (M.A.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Also available on the World Wide Web.

This thesis examines the entirety of Joseph Heller's career as a novelist and explores the various existential themes uniting a seemingly diverse body of work. Considering Heller's relationship to the philosophy of Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, "Towards a Postmodern Absurd: The Fiction of Joseph Heller" suggests that the novelist promotes the same existentially authentic lifestyle of revolt originally articulated by the French existentialists. Refuting the critical assessment of Heller's fiction as formless, this thesis argues that Heller deliberately structures his fiction around the concept of dejd vu in order to buttress the author's existential concerns with the absurdity of human existence. Finally, in response to the recent debates over Joseph Heller's place in the postmodern American canon, the thesis identifies the author's use of such postmodern concepts as pastiche and paranoia as a further reinforcement of the relevance of an absurdist worldview in contemporary America.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Delaware, 2007. / Principal faculty advisor: Elaine B. Safer, Dept. of English. Includes bibliographical references.