Negation in discourse: a text world approach to Joseph Heller’s Catch-22

2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Hidalgo-Downing
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Joseph Heller ◽  
Form Part ◽  
The Common ◽  
Catch 22 ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
The Way

This article presents a discourse-based approach to negation by applying text world theory to the analysis of negation in the novel Catch-22, by Joseph Heller (1986 [1961]), The model developed for the analysis of negation is based on Werth’s (1999) notion of negation as a subworld which modifies information which is present in the common ground of the discourse. By so doing, negation contributes to the general discourse function of updating information in the text world. Additionally, negation may form part of contradictory structures which, being self-contained units, do not contribute to the updating discourse function but, rather, seem to block the flow of information. The analysis of the functions of negation is framed within a broader framework of stylistic analysis, where the objective is to discuss how the foregrounded nature of negation as a recursive feature in Catch-22 may have a defamiliarizing effect. The argument put forward in this article is that negation plays a crucial role in the expression of a conflict between what is presented as real and what is presented as not real in the fictional world; this conflict, in its turn, has important consequences for the way the story develops and the way major themes of the novel are treated.

Fielding and Richardson

PMLA ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 81 (5) ◽  
pp. 381-388
Author(s):  
William Park
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
General Type ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Tom Jones ◽  
The Common ◽  
The One

But the Discovery [of when to laugh and when to cry] was reserved for this Age, and there are two Authors now living in this Metropolis, who have found out the Art, and both brother Biographers, the one of Tom Jones, and the other of Clarissa.author of Charlotte SummersRather than discuss the differences which separate Fielding and Richardson, I propose to survey the common ground which they share with each other and with other novelists of the 1740's and 50's. In other words I am suggesting that these two masters, their contemporaries, and followers have made use of the same materials and that as a result the English novels of the mid-eighteenth century may be regarded as a distinct historic version of a general type of literature. Most readers, it seems to me, do not make this distinction. They either think that the novel is always the same, or they believe that one particular group of novels, such as those written in the early twentieth century, is the form itself. In my opinion, however, we should think of the novel as we do of the drama. No one kind of drama, such as Elizabethan comedy or Restoration comedy, is the drama itself; instead, each is a particular manifestation of the general type. Each kind bears some relationship to the others, but at the same time each has its own identity, which we usually call its conventions. By conventions I mean not only stock characters, situations, and themes, but also notions and assumptions about the novel, human nature, society, and the cosmos itself. If we compare one kind of novel to another without first considering the conventions of each, we are likely to make the same mistake that Thomas Rymer did when he blamed Shakespeare for not conforming to the canons of classical French drama.

scholarly journals The Catch of the Hyperreal: Yossarian and the Ideological Vicissitudes of Hyperreality

Text Matters ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 386-410
Author(s):  
Abdolali Yazdizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
American Life ◽  
Ideological Discourse ◽  
Catch 22

Hyperreality is a key term in Jean Baudrillard’s cultural theory, designating a phase in the development of image where it “masks the absence of a profound reality.” The ambiance of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 (1961) closely corresponds to Baudrillard’s notion of the hyperreal as images persist to precede reality in the fictional world of the novel. Since for Baudrillard each order of simulacra produces a certain mode of ideological discourse that impacts the perception of reality, it is plausible that the characters of this fictional context should be ideologically impacted by the hyperreal discourse. From this vantage point it is possible to have a new critical assessment of Yossarian’s (protagonist) antiheroic stance and study the role of the “business of illusion,” whose ideological edifice is based on the discourse of the hyperreal, on his antiheroic stance and actions. By drawing on Baudrillard’s cultural theory this paper aims to read Heller’s novel as a postmodern allegory of rebellion against the hyperreality of the twentieth-century American life and trace its relevance to modern-day U.S.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak and the Knight of Faith by Kierkegaard: Common Ground

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-64
Author(s):  
Alla Radionova
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Women's Images ◽  
Boris Pasternak ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
The World ◽  
Rational Thought ◽  
The Common ◽  
Moral Model

The article deals with the intertextual relationships of the novel «Doctor Zhivago» by B. Pasternak and the treatise «Fear and Trembling» by Søren-Kierkegaard. Pasternak mentioned Kierkegaard in his works and noted his great influence on modern culture. While Pasternak was working on the novel, he used the concept of chivalry, which was an allusion to Kierkegaard. In his treatise «the Knight of Faith» is a moral model that has overcome the fetters of rational thought and broken out of the temporary boundaries. S. Kierkegaard gives his description, which is directly related to the themes and motives associated with the image of Yuri Zhivago. Both Kierkegaard and Pasternak emphasize that the heroes of the high spirit merge with the human community, they cannot be distinguished from the general population with their private existences; the authors carefully contemplate the world around them, trying to penetrate into the very essence of each phenomenon, they differ in external carelessness with the utmost tension of the inner spiritual life. In their self-denial they renounce the most beloved, precious, valuable. Their love takes the form of religious veneration, and the beloved combines the temporal and the eternal, the earthly and the divine. They transfer the pain of double existence and the pain of loss into the realm of the spiritual, the creative, and the realm of memory. In the treatment of women's images in «Doctor Zhivago» Pasternak is equally focused on both Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky, between whom, in turn, there are many similarities. The common ground between the two texts proves the presence of purposeful inter-system interaction.

Translation as a metaphoric traveller across disciplines

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Zwischenberger
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Cultural Translation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Way

Abstract Translation, as a concept, may be regarded as a prototype of a ‘travelling concept’ as it has travelled to numerous disciplines in recent years. Therefore, a ‘translational turn’ was proclaimed for the humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences (cf. Bachmann-Medick 2007, 2009). Outside of translation studies, the use of the translation concept is not bound to “translation proper” (Jakobson 1959, 232) or to the way in which the concept is used and defined in translation studies. Consequently, ‘translation’ is usually used as a very broad metaphor in translation studies’ neighbouring disciplines and fields of research. This mobility shows the potential and high polysemantic value of the translation concept. What we are missing, however, is a ‘translaboration’ between translation studies and the various other disciplines that employ translation studies’ master concept. The paper will illustrate the background of the translational turn and the rise of the notion of ‘cultural translation’ as well as the deployment of the translation category in organisation studies and sociology. It will thus limit itself to examples from cultural studies and the social sciences. The paper’s aim is to revise and dispel some of the misconceptions held against translation proper and the discipline of translation studies, thereby showing that translation studies has the conceptual and theoretical grounding to be the leading discipline for the unfolding of a translational turn outside its disciplinary borders. Furthermore, the paper will show the common ground for a translaboration from which both translation studies and its neighbouring disciplines could ultimately benefit.

Sallust and Dissimulatio

1959 ◽  
Vol 49 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 56-60
Author(s):  
A. R. Hands
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Common ◽  
Annus Mirabilis ◽  
The Way

Among much else that has been written on Sallust recently, we have been informed or reminded of his ‘deep antipathy’ for Cicero among the political figures of his own day (Syme, Tacitus, 1958, 203), whilst it is Scaurus ‘whom he hates especially’ (K. von Fritz, TAPh. A 74, 1943, 145) of the nobility of the Jugurthine War period. We believe these two judgments to be essentially correct, although ‘hatred’ for one who was not a contemporary is perhaps too strong a term in the case of Scaurus. In the case of Cicero, indeed, it is still a matter for argument how far a dislike on Sallust's part is revealed in the Catilina, which we do not propose to re-argue; for us, not only Sallust's ‘curious and elaborate creation of an anti-Ciceronian style’ (Syme, l.e., cf. E. Sikes, CAH IX, 769), but still more the way in which he deliberately proceeds to glorify Caesar and Cato in Cicero's annus mirabilis seems sufficient evidence of his attitude to the latter; nor should the –Invective necessarily be rejected as evidence, however much we may doubt its authen-ticity, since even a bogus document must be basically plausible if it is to gain any acceptance. Our purpose here, rather, is to seek the common ground of Sallust's dislikes; to suggest that the attitude of Sallust to Cicero may help to explain his hostile representation of Scaurus and that, by a corollary, the latter confirms the former.

scholarly journals Anti-Militarism in Joseph Heller's Catch-22

2015 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
SABAH SALIM JABBAR
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Air Force ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World War ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Joseph Heller ◽  
Catch 22 ◽  
The Military

The paper attempts to address Joseph Heller in his novel, Catch-22 (1961). An examination of the content of the novel in relation to antimilitaristic concepts is a major focus of the paper. The paper depicts various characters in the novel and tries to show how they reflect antimilitarism. The effects of particular behaviors and the major events that take place in the Air Force are discussed in the paper. The story mainly revolves around some airmen who were combatants in World War II. The events discussed in the paper clearly highlight the sentiments held by antimilitarists on war issues. The plot of the novel is sequential and the description of events is comic. The characters represent various characteristics that can be used to develop a plot on antimilitarism. The paper bases its literature of the aspects of the military that necessitate and justify the rise and development of antimilitarism. Socialism is a notable aspect of antimilitarism while militarism seems to conform to capitalism. From an antimilitaristic perspective, capitalism is characterized by a type of bureaucracy that demoralizes soldiers and promotes individuality within the military. Catch-22 deals with all the militaristic and antimilitaristic factors and events that lead to the same aspects.

scholarly journals THE ABSURDITY OF HUMAN AND REALITY IN THE NOVEL “CATCH-22” OF JOSEPH HELLER

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-31
Author(s):  
Anh Thu Thai
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Personal Integrity ◽  
World War ◽  
American Military ◽  
American Writer ◽  
Joseph Heller ◽  
Catch 22 ◽  
Military Unit ◽  
Insight Into

“Catch-22” is considered one of the American writer Joseph Heller’s greatest novels. It was published in 1961. Joseph Heller combined the irrational sensations, the mocking and satirical tones to describe a collapsed and degenerate world in the postmodern condition. Through the living background of an American military unit of World War II, the author reflected some absurd problems such as: the distortion of justice, the influence of greed, and the issue of personal integrity. This article focuses on analyzing the absurdity of character imagery and reality that is automatically accepted and followed in postmodern condition. As a result, readers can gain a deeper insight into the novel and seek empathy in the perception about the absurd, which is becoming normal in recently.

Muslim-Christian Dialogue in Peyami Safa's The Armchair of Mademoiselle Noraliya

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-104
Author(s):  
Sureyya Elif Aksoy ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Peace Of Mind ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
The Common ◽  
Islam And Christianity

Peyami Safa, a twentieth-century novelist, journalist and intellectual, and one of the major personalities of conservatism in Turkey, encouraged Muslim and Christian believers to search for common ground and shared values that would yield a happy, virtuous way of life. His novel, The Armchair of Mademoiselle Noraliya, features character, Noraliya, who epitomizes the common ground between Islam and Christianity as a guide to peace of mind for individuals lost in the maze of modemity. Safa's literary construct is rooted in both religious inclination and admiration for the modem mind. Drawing on the main elements of the novel, this essay focuses on those features that reflect Safa's idea of a personal mysticism reached through religion, as well as interreligious dialogue, Safa's approach exemplifies Turkey's unique position in the Muslim world, inviting comparison arui appreciation of the nuances among the historical manifestations of Islam.

Music and Neo-Victorian Gothic Tropes: The Glass Armonica in A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-144
Author(s):  
Francesca Battaglia
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Mise En Abyme ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Way

This contribution analyses the role of music in A Slight Trick of the Mind (2005) by Mitch Cullin, highlighting the way in which the novel contradicts itself in its effort to reject Holmesian stereotypes. Indeed, although the common beliefs inspired by John Watson's authorship are disavowed in order to provide a more realistic portrait of the man behind the legend, the Victorian past keeps haunting Holmes through an old case concerning a glass armonica. Since a parallel can be drawn between the instrument and Holmes's iconic violin, it is argued that the sub-narrative ends up functioning as a neo-Victorian mise en abyme, where those gothic elements potentially related to Holmes's musicianship in the original texts appear to be projected onto the glass armonica and female characters, drawing attention to the gendered codes of music's discourse in neo-Victorian narratives. Indeed, while the violin may serve in the canon as a male signifier, albeit a controversial one, the glass armonica carries feminine connotations that shed new light on the many possible re-presentations of Sherlock Holmes's favourite instrument.

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