Grotesqueness: A Postmodernist Study Of Joseph Heller's Catch-22

Joseph Heller's Catch-22 has always been regarded as a masterpiece whenever black humor is concerned. Since its publication in 1961, criticisms and reviews on this novel have covered a wide range of aspects, ranging from themes to narrative techniques.Criticisms in China mainly focus on the issues of black humor, absurdity and the language of this novel.I write this thesis,hoping to find out the postmodernist feature of"grotesqueness"revealed in this fiction from aspects of structure, characterization, and language which will certainly contribute to a better research into the novel as well as a better understanding of grotesqueness as a general feature of postmodernist fiction.In this thesis, the structure of the novel is anatomized,especially on the grotesqueness displayed in the formless and repetitious structure and bewildering chronology. The structure of Catch-22 appears to be a chronological jumble, in which plots are fragmented, contents are discontinuous and events in the present intermingle with cumulative repetitions and gradual clarification of past actions. But it surely has its own special integrity and coherence, which is interior and psychological rather than actual. This unusual time sequence not only brings readers a sense of grotesqueness but also qualifies Catch-22 as an example of postmodern fiction. Catch-22 is divided into forty two chapters and it involves more than seventy figures. Besides Yossarian,the other figures' characterization such as Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder, the Chaplain, and Colonel Cathcart also gives us a deep impression and their words and actions project the grotesqueness of the world as well. the language of this novel are discussed from five aspects embodied in the novel:paradox,black humor,ambiguity, tautological dialogues and the language of deficiency. Language,as presented in Catch-22,is more than useless,it has been distorted,so it is dangerous,a weapon employed by the authorities to enslave individuals in a society of institutionalized absurdity.