Semiotyczna ironia Hellera i Crane'a

Abstract

The goal of the paper is to compare E. Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage and J. Heller’s Catch-22 from the point of view of the semiotic systems and the basic signs functioning within these two novels. In the first part, the author discusses the use of the signs belonging to the popular-heroic variant of the system WAR in its „brutal” variant (The Red Badge of Courage) and in its absurd-grotesque variant (Catch-22); part two deals with the function of the wound as an ironic sign; and part three compares the realizations of the literary sysetm BILDUNGSROMAN, and the use within this system of the signs belonging to the system WAR in both novels.