Kafkaesque affinities in Joseph Heller's Catch-22

Abstract

Praised as 'the best novel to come out of anywhere in years,' Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (1961) - a work suspended between different genres which include satire, comedy and the absurd, shares an undeniable link with the cultural phenomenon that is the Kafkaesque. The starting point of this dissertation therefore, is a cultural and critical investigation of what this iconic but still somewhat elusive concept entails; taking into account its relationship to the work of Franz Kafka as well as its efficiency as one of the most powerful allegories of present day social and cultural realities. This discussion serves as a springboard to a close observation of the different ways in which the postmodern Heller reiterates, reworks and in some ways even reverses the vision of the Modern Kafka; a study which will demonstrate how, while both writers articulate a bleak vision of an absurd, overbureaucratized society that imposes a man-made madness onto its subjects, the Kafkaesque springs forth its progeny - the Helleresque.