'Totalitarianism', Treason and Containment in Catch-22 (and 1984).
Critical writing on Catch-22 has often centred (quite naturally and understandably, it must be said) on concepts such as paradox, black humour and the absurdity of the human condition. Although these approaches have certainly not been without profit and have produced interesting readings, they have...
| Publicado en: | Comparative American Studies Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 217 - 236 |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Literary Criticism |
| Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Sep2011
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=64495317&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 64495317 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 14775700 VA2 jtl: Comparative American Studies issn: 14775700 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2011 vid: 9 iid: 3 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 64495317 10.1179/147757011X13045212814321 ppf: 217 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 107KB tig: atl: 'Totalitarianism', Treason and Containment in Catch-22 (and 1984). aug: au: Mantzaris, Alexandros affil: University of Sussex, UK su: Catch-22 (Book : Heller) 1984 (Book : Orwell) Containment (Political science) Treason in literature Totalitarianism & literature Orwell, George, 1903-1950 Heller, Joseph, 1923-1999 sug: subj: Catch-22 (Book : Heller) 1984 (Book : Orwell) Containment (Political science) Treason in literature Totalitarianism & literature Orwell, George, 1903-1950 Heller, Joseph, 1923-1999 keyword: 1960S AMERICAN FICTION COLD WAR IDEOLOGY TOTALITARIANISM TREASON ab: Critical writing on Catch-22 has often centred (quite naturally and understandably, it must be said) on concepts such as paradox, black humour and the absurdity of the human condition. Although these approaches have certainly not been without profit and have produced interesting readings, they have also tended to obscure, under the generic nature of such frameworks, the novel's patent political concerns - concerns which, moreover, are not at all unrelated to the usual critical preoccupations. In a similar way, although Catch-22 criticism has often relied heavily on the detection of literary allusions and influences at work in the text, a most obvious source of influence seems to have been generally ignored. This essay attempts to offer a different reading of Catch-22 based on the assertion that what the novel is really about is 'totalitarianism'. Its starting point is, therefore, a parallel reading bringing together Heller's best-known book with one of the central literary texts on 'totalitarianism' - George Orwell's 1984. Focusing initially on the similar way(s) in which the two novels construct what is called a 'totalitarian' atmosphere, the essay proceeds to briefly demonstrate the bearing of the 'totalitarian' problematic on another important '60s novel, E. L. Doctorow's Welcome to Hard Times, and to offer a fuller reading of Catch-22, including a summary excursion into the difficult question of how the student of '60s American fictions should approach the concept of 'totalitarianism'. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Literary Criticism src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Comparative American Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Comparative American Studies holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2011 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|