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Screamingly Funny: a Critical Approach to the Comedic Anti- Title War Novels of Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins and Tony Vigorito

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Screamingly Funny: a Critical Approach to the Comedic Anti- Title War Novels of Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins and Tony Vigorito Provided by the author(s) and NUI Galway in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Screamingly funny: A critical approach to the comedic anti- Title war novels of Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins and Tony Vigorito Author(s) Gallagher, Rosemary Publication Date 2016-10-14 Item record http://hdl.handle.net/10379/6513 Downloaded 2021-09-29T13:40:41Z Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. Screamingly Funny A Critical Approach to the Comedic Anti-War Novels of Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins and Tony Vigorito Rosemary Gallagher, B.A., M.A. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English to the National University of Ireland, Galway, College of Arts, Social Sciences & Celtic Studies. Supervised by Professor Sean Ryder SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, DISCIPLINE OF ENGLISH October 2016 Table of Contents DECLARATION .................................................................................... III ABSTRACT ........................................................................................... V ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................................................... IX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1 1.1 The American War Novel .............................................................................................. 3 1.2 Humour in the American Anti-war Novel ...................................................................... 7 1.2.1 Black Humor ...................................................................................................... 9 1.2.2 Gallows Humor ............................................................................................... 18 1.2.3 The Logic of the Absurd ................................................................................. 22 1.3 Critical Approaches to Heller, Vonnegut, Robbins and Vigorito ............................... 27 1.3.1 Joseph Heller .................................................................................................. 27 1.3.2 Kurt Vonnegut ................................................................................................ 30 1.3.3 Tom Robbins ................................................................................................... 32 1.3.4 Tony Vigorito .................................................................................................. 34 1.4 Objectives of this Thesis ............................................................................................. 35 CHAPTER 2. JOSEPH HELLER .............................................................. 37 2.1 Heller’s World War II ................................................................................................... 38 2.2 Heller’s Joke-Work ...................................................................................................... 44 2.3 Close Reading of Catch-22 .......................................................................................... 52 2.3.1. Clevinger as Yossarian’s Alter: Sanity and Insanity ....................................... 57 2.3.2. Milo Minderbinder: From Free-Agent to Agent of Destruction ................... 60 2.3.3. Desertion: The Only Way to Win the War on Language ............................... 61 2.4 Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 71 CHAPTER 3. KURT VONNEGUT ............................................................ 73 3.1 Vonnegut’s World War II ............................................................................................. 75 3.2 Vonnegut’s Joke-Work ................................................................................................ 80 3.3 Close Reading of Slaughterhouse-Five ....................................................................... 91 3.3.1 Tragic Irony ..................................................................................................... 91 i 3.3.2 Billy Pilgrim: Anti-hero and Wounded Soldier ................................................ 99 3.3.3 Manifestations of the Authorial Self ............................................................. 108 3.4 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 111 CHAPTER 4. TOM ROBBINS ............................................................... 115 4.1 Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 116 4.2 Robbins’ Korean War ................................................................................................ 131 4.3 Tom Robbins’ Joke-work: Crazy Wisdom as late-Black Humor ................................ 135 4.4 Close Reading of Villa Incognito ............................................................................... 145 4.5 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 167 CHAPTER 5. TONY VIGORITO ............................................................ 171 5.1 Vigorito’s Joke-Work ................................................................................................. 172 5.2 Close Reading of Just a Couple of Days ................................................................... 180 5.3 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 196 CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION ................................................................ 199 APPENDIX 1: AN INTERVIEW WITH TOM ROBBINS .............................. 201 APPENDIX 2: AN INTERVIEW WITH TONY VIGORITO ........................... 225 WORKS CITED ................................................................................. 237 Works Mentioned ............................................................................................................ 245 ii Declaration I hereby certify that this thesis is all my own work and that I have not obtained a degree in this University, or elsewhere, on the basis of any of this work. Signed: Rosemary Gallagher Date: iii iv Abstract This thesis investigates the use of humour in American anti-war novels in the second half of the twentieth century, through an analysis of joke-work in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 (1961), Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Tom Robbins’ Villa Incognito (2003) and Tony Vigorito’s Just a Couple of Days (2001). Though the earlier novels have been referred to as “Black Humor”, work done by critics of this genre in the 1960s and 1970s over-emphasised the “black” and failed to account for the “humour”. With recourse to Freud’s work on humour as well as Jerry Palmer’s The Logic of the Absurd (1987) the joke- work in these novels will be examined in depth, as well as the changes in comic technique from the earlier to the later examples. In consideration of the psychological release afforded by laughter, as described in Freud’s comments on humour, the connections between biography and fiction will be examined, particularly with regard to the authors’ own war experience. As the anti-war novelists’ proximity to the traumatic war experience increases and their psychological burden lessens, this thesis will account for the lessening degree of acerbity in humour in the later examples. In short, through an analysis of joke construction this thesis will account for the way in which the comedic anti-war novel becomes less and less absurd throughout the second half of the twentieth century. v vi Q. How many Vietnam Veterans does it take to screw in a light bulb? A. You don’t know man, you weren’t there. vii viii Acknowledgments This thesis is dedicated to my father, Seamus Gallagher, whose famous sense of humour instilled in me an abiding appreciation for the subtle cadences and nuances of a good joke, as well as the power of laughing at one’s own punch-lines. Thank you to Anne for laughing with him, even though she’s heard them all before. To my mother, Ann Dooley Gallagher, for always needing the joke explained, and for teaching me to “never ruin a perfectly good story with the truth”. To P.E. Dooley, the Dooley family, and Charles Sterne for all their support. Thank you to my dearest friends and family, for their gallows humour even as the gallows were nigh; you made me laugh until I cried, and cry until I laughed. To Lee Vahey, for his endless patience and unbridled interest in humour theory, and for somehow managing to be entertaining to boot. With special thanks to Sean Ryder, the most incredible, intelligent, patient and wise supervisor, for his encouragement even when it wasn’t deserved, and for trusting in the scaffolding when the building was bare. Thank you also to my friends and colleagues in the English Department at NUI Galway, particularly to those who contributed to my Graduate Research Council over the years. This study was funded by a Galway Doctoral Research Scholarship from the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies at NUI, Galway, as well as by a University Write- up Bursary, for which support I am very grateful. My gratitude also to the University of California Educate Abroad Programme, for allowing me to carry out research in the stunning University of California, Berkeley campus. Finally, to my colleagues in the Irish Association for American Studies, especially Ron Callan, Philip McGowan,
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