【作者】 唐文；

【导师】 郭继德；

【作者基本信息】 山东大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2011， 博士

【摘要】 根据黑色幽默小说评论家马科斯·舒尔茨的论断,黑色幽默小说发端并发展于二十世纪六十年代的美国。这一论断强调了黑色幽默小说产生所植根的独特社会背景,从而使它超越了普通幽默的范畴。作为黑色幽默小说的代表作家,约瑟夫·海勒当之无愧为杰出的幽默大师之一。正如舒尔茨所断言,海勒幽默的独特性也在于其特殊的黑色内涵,本论文即着眼于阐释海勒小说的黑色内涵以及它的幽默媒介。海勒小说的黑色内涵极其丰富,它不仅呈现了文学创作从现代主义到后现代主义过渡时期所独有的特色,彰显了当世流行的存在主义思潮的影响,同时也反映了作者所处时代特殊的社会背景和他与众不同的生活经历。从本质上讲,它是在存在主义思潮和荒诞背景下现代人的一种生存逻辑。在这个内涵丰富的黑色网络中,起枢纽作用的分别是“权力等级”、“死亡”和“荒诞”。本论文使用跨学科研究方法,借助于米歇尔·福柯的“权力理论”,厄内斯特·贝克尔有关肉体死亡和精神永生关系的精彩论断,以及“存在”和“本质”分离的形而上关系,从社会学、心理学以及哲学三个视角,对海勒小说黑色内涵展开论述。在对海勒小说中的黑色内涵进行论述的同时,本论文有两个关注点。其一,本论文关注的是如何阐释海勒小说中黑色内涵的三方面内容以及这些内涵之间的相互关系。尽管先前已有诸多针对海勒作品“黑色本质”的研究,但它们均没有勾勒出这个黑色网络的整体框架。实际上,三个内涵是由表及里、逐步深入的：“权力”论题是开启海勒小说世界大门的钥匙,解读“死亡”是跨越小说世界门槛的关键,而开门后扑面而来、弥漫四周的则是在小说世界里起着根基作用、同时也是理解其黑色内涵关键所在的“荒诞”。其二,本论文的另一个关注点是“黑色”得以表达的媒介。随着对黑色幽默小说研究的逐步深入,一个现象逐渐突显,即“幽默”只是其表达的媒介体,而“黑色”才是“黑色幽默”的词核。这也解释了海勒为什么一再声明他不会采用任何没有黑色内涵的幽默。对海勒来说,幽默仅仅是一种能够而且应该将“黑色”的理念传达给读者的媒介而已。但与此同时,幽默在海勒的黑色幽默小说中的作用也是不可轻视的。一方面,由于幽默产生的重要前提是“制造惊喜”,而这个前提预设了黑色幽默的内核即荒诞的存在,因此“黑色”和“幽默”之间有互为铺垫、相辅相成的关系。另一方面,由于这种“制造惊喜”的前提与当时社会历史条件的限制之间存在矛盾,从而使得“黑色”和“幽默”之间存在着一种危险的张力,当这种张力达到一定界限时,黑色幽默的矛盾就会暴露出来。这正解释了为什么海勒后期的作品不能在艺术成就上超越他的第一部小说《第二十二条军规》,同时也自黑色幽默小说诞生之日起就预示了它的最终落幕。除了序言和结论,论文主体共由四章构成。序言部分,对国内外的海勒研究进行了文献综述,并结合影响海勒艺术特色的同时代社会、文学背景及其生活经历,总结出了海勒黑色幽默小说中“黑色”主要的三层内涵：等级权力、死亡和荒诞,这也是论文前三章要分别探讨的主题。第一章集中阐释“权力”主题,第二章讨论的是死亡带给海勒小说世界的影响,第三章着力探讨的是“存在”和“本质”的分离,即荒诞,而最后一章则聚焦于黑色得以表达的媒介一幽默。第一章结合福柯的“权力理论”对海勒小说中的权力体系从四个角度进行解读,即“圆形监狱”和“第二十二条军规”的相似性,性,权力话语和父子关系。海勒小说中的权力体系结构复杂,在像“圆形监狱”一样运作的“第二十二条军规”的统摄下,小说中的人物通过各种手段寻求着自我身份的认证。福柯认为,“圆形监狱”正因其特殊的结构布局,其才被认为是最强有力的现代化监狱。在“圆形监狱”里,囚禁犯人的监狱单面分布于一个圆形的建筑物内侧,圆形建筑物中央,矗立着监视塔。这样的建筑结构,既极大地降低了人力和物力的投入,又充分发挥了其监控犯人的功能。“第二十二条军规”的运作方式正与之相同,虽然它是无形的,却可以极其有效地用荒诞世界的逻辑操控士兵。在这些士兵中,唯一个无视军规、蔑视荒诞的正是故事的主角尤索林。无处不在的荒诞强烈冲击着海勒小说人物的自我意识,因此他们尽其所能地寻求一种生存的安全感,而缺失了情感的性、对权力话语的追寻以及父亲杀死儿子的倾向都是他们这种努力的集中表现。其一,性是新生命产生的前提和生命延续的象征,这也是海勒的小说人物都不同程度地沉溺于性爱之中的原因。而对于像《出事了》中的斯洛克姆以及《上帝知道》里的大卫王一样的人物角色,坦白自己的性动机和性行为,则是他们重新确立自我身份的重要途径之一。其二,对话语权的掌控也是小说人物获取生存优越感的重要途径之一。脱离了“本质”束缚而放纵的语言增加了小说的荒诞感,而对话语权的掌控也增强了小说人物对自我身份进行确立的信心。因此,尤索林才会在审查士官的信件时兴致盎然地发动了一场针对单词的大规模战争；而斯洛克姆则抓住每一个机会用言语战胜别人,并可以仅仅通过语言时态的转变而使自己轻而易举地摆脱生活中的困境。最后,折磨甚至杀死自己的儿子,则成为海勒小说人物获得生存安全感的另一种残忍手段。当俄狄浦斯长大之后,他将会篡夺王位并杀死拉伊俄斯。既然“俄狄浦斯情结”预设了存在于儿子身上的潜在威胁,拉伊俄斯想要先行杀死自己的儿子也是意料之中的事情。因此,当斯洛克姆亲手杀死自己最爱的儿子时,实际上他是在为未来的生活铲除潜在的威胁。第二章关注的是海勒小说中的死亡主题。权力的获得有助于海勒小说人物确立自我身份,而让他们最为恐惧的则是死亡。厄内斯特.贝克尔在《反抗死亡》一书中提到,“移情”是消减死亡恐惧的重要途径之一,而“移情”的对象越是抽象,这种消减作用则会更加明显。因此,透过小说主人公们对死亡怀有极大恐惧的表象,海勒真正想要呈献给读者的,其实是通过生理的消亡而达到精神上的永生。尽管《第二十二条军规》中的尤索林坚守着自己的生存哲学,从来不放过任何无须执行飞行任务的机会,而《画画这个》里的苏格拉底蔑视各种形式的生存哲学,并为自己的肉体消亡做好了一切准备,虽然二者的表现形式截然不同,但实际上,他们拥有一个共同信念,即他们即将得到精神上的永生。剖析这种理想主义的永生,其主要产生了以下两个方面的重要影响。一方面,由于对死亡的极其恐惧,海勒的小说人物在时间的“嘀嗒”声中产生了时空的错位感。既然“嘀”意味着开始而“嗒”意味着结束,所以后者的到来总会引起他们的巨大恐慌。因此,像邓巴一样的人物会运用各种荒诞的手段去延长“嘀”的进行而推迟“嗒”的到来。这也解释了《第二十二条军规》看似破碎的小说结构以及《出事了》中斯洛克姆在时间上对“现在”和“过去”困惑的原因。另一方面,由于死神桑纳托斯总是与爱神厄洛斯形影不离,想要逃避死亡就得远离爱情。这正是海勒小说的主人公逃避爱情的原因。例如,在《第二十二条军规》中勇于投身爱情的纳特利就成为了最先死去的士兵之一,主人公尤索林成功地明哲保身的原因也在于他沉溺于性爱而远离爱情,这也是理解《出事了》中的主人公斯洛克姆心里最阴暗处残忍地期盼自己所爱的女人一个个死去的关键因素。与此同时,因为同性恋意味着对弱势群体的归属,海勒的小说人物们都像《第二十二条军规》中的梅杰少校和《上帝知道》里的大卫王一样,不遗余力地撇清自己和这一弱势的他者群体的任何联系。由于情感的缺失,海勒的小说世界实际上是一片爱的荒原。海勒的小说世界里到处都弥漫着死亡的气息,但由于其在故事背景里安排了许多若隐若现的“嘀”声,因此读者仍然可以通过它们而感受到精神永生主题的存在。例如,海勒在《第二十二条军规》里设计了许多象征“再生”的人物形象,如代表着埃及再生女神的“白色士兵”和象征着玛雅文化中谷神的一级准尉哈尔福特等。另外,死亡也会带来小说主人公象征性的再生。例如,《像戈尔德一样好》中西德的死亡促进了小说主人公戈尔德犹太意识的复苏,而《出事了》中儿子的死亡使精神世界即将崩溃的斯洛克姆最终回归到正常的生活轨道。第三章阐释的是“黑色”的第三层含义——荒诞。在海勒的小说世界里,无论是等级权力体系还是令人窒息的死亡阴影,它们都有一个共同的本质,即“存在”和“本质”的分离。简.布洛克在《有关荒诞的形而上》一书中指出,荒诞存在的根源正是在于“存在”和“本质”的分离。这种“存在”和“本质”的分离深深植根于海勒的荒诞小说世界中,并引发了小说人物以及读者对于其“所指”和“能指”内涵的困惑。海勒主要运用了两种方式以更好地阐释“存在”从所谓的“本质”之中的脱离,即挑战权威和戏弄“能指”。首先,海勒明确了其对所谓的“权威”和“传统”的否定态度,正因如此,连西方文化里的终极权威——上帝,在其作品《上帝知道》中也变成了一个插科打诨的小丑。其次,海勒运用了悖论、幻觉记忆和非常规的否定等特殊的写作技巧,从而更好地突显了“能指”和“所指”之间的错位。在这个荒诞的世界里,只有那些能够操纵脱离了存在的“本质”和没有本质的“存在”的人物才能成为当权者,而大多数人则只能悲剧性地沦为荒诞的牺牲品。在这两类人中间,还夹杂着另一不同群体,他们神似克尔凯郭尔所描述的荒诞骑士。克尔凯郭尔的荒诞骑士又有“无限隐忍骑士”和“信仰骑士”之分。虽然有些人物意识到了世界的荒诞性,如《第二十二条军规》中的邓巴,由于他们没有像尤索林一样通过信仰超越荒诞而成为“信仰骑士”,因此只能被称为“无限隐忍骑士”。而是否以及如何成为“信仰骑士”,就成为海勒小说主人公们最主要的担忧和最痛苦的磨炼。作为海勒第一部小说的主人公,尤索林在某种意义上是幸运的,因为在小说结尾处海勒轻易地的安排了尤索林的“一跃”,正是这“一跃”使尤索林顺利地蜕变为一位“信仰骑士”。但是,海勒其他的主人公则注定在信仰与否的边缘做着惨烈的挣扎。因此,海勒笔下的主人公们都感受到了来自信仰的孤独感以及由于“存在”和“本质”脱离、不道德被赋予道德内涵而产生的“道德错乱”最后一章关注的是黑色内涵得以表达的媒介一幽默。在海勒的作品中,幽默存在的意义不仅在于产生即时的令人忍俊不禁的效果,其更重要的意义在于之后所引发的读者对幽默表象下所要传达的黑色内涵的反思。正是由于黑色内涵的存在,海勒式的幽默超越了普通幽默在一个社会里的矫正功能而具有了更深层次的作用。一方面,幽默可以帮助小说人物及读者克服由“黑色”带来的恐惧,促进小说情节以及读者阅读的逐步深入。另一方面,幽默使读者在阅读过程中产生一种阅读期盼,即通过幽默宣泄“黑色”所带来的压力,从而巧妙地使“黑色”主题得以加深。海勒的幽默机制主要包含了四个部分,即对读者情感的操控、使小说基调在精神层面和物质层面之间的突然转换、使幽默从智力层突进到情感层,以及频繁使用具有反讽效果的引经据典。由于海勒的小说人物对理想的道德传统表现出一种“怀乡情感”,因此海勒式幽默作品作为一种讽刺文学,更多地体现出了“建构”而非“解构”的理念。由于时代发展不断赋予文学作品以新的主题,所以这种“建构”理念预示着作品有可能会陷入因循守旧、甚至陈词滥调的怪圈。此外,由于幽默存在的一个重要前提是“制造惊喜”,所以海勒小说中“黑色”和“幽默”之间就存在着一种危险的张力。随着反讽意味的减弱,幽默的效果和荒诞的氛围也会消减直至消失。因此,“黑色”和“幽默”两者难免会最终会彼此抵消。本论文的结论主要归结为两点。其一,从本质上讲,海勒黑色幽默小说中的“黑色”彰显的是以存在主义思潮和荒诞为背景的现代人的一种生存逻辑。“黑色”的内涵主要包含等级权力、死亡及荒诞三个方面的内容。其中,“荒诞”处于核心位置,因为它预置了“存在”和“本质”的分离,并且使三层内涵有序地统一起来。通过对“所指”和“能指”的恣意操纵,所谓的权威阶层才能实现自己的独裁统治。而由于死亡意义的缺失,海勒的主人公才会对其产生极度的畏惧心理。所以,作为海勒小说世界的内核部分,荒诞毋庸置疑地成为了黑色内涵产生和存在的决定因素。其次,黑色内涵和幽默媒介之间的潜在张力,预示着发端并发展于上个世纪六十年代美国的黑色幽默小说帷幕将会最终落下。幽默效果的产生总有一个前提,即这种幽默可以制造惊喜。而正因为海勒的黑色幽默小说表现出“建构”式反讽的特质,它的黑色内涵也就注定会难以一直满足读者的阅读期待。当海勒的读者已经熟识甚至厌倦了小说的黑色内涵后,幽默便因丧失了制造惊喜的能力变得枯燥无味,从而无法继续吸引读者的注意力。与此同时,它也不再能够激发读者对黑色内涵的深刻反思。这不仅是海勒小说创作的困境,也是其他黑色幽默小说家无法摆脱的创作困境。然而,在将“黑色”和“幽默”结合的过程中,海勒创造了一套独特的文学思维方式和写作技巧,而这些是不会因为黑色幽默小说的落幕而退出文学历史舞台的。正因如此,我们才可以看到海勒的影子仍然不时地闪现在许多当代作家、尤其是当代黑色幽默作家的作品中。更多还原

【Abstract】 When Max. F. Schultz, a renowned Black Humor fiction critic, claims that Black Humor fiction is specific to the 1960s in America, he is actually stressing that the significance of Black Humor fiction lies in its idiosyncratic social backgrounds, and consequently, Black Humor fiction goes beyond, or even above, the mere domain of humor. As a representative of Black Humor fiction authors, Joseph Heller is heralded as one of the most remarkable masters of humor. Just as Schultz claims, the idiosyncrasy of Joseph Heller’s humor also lies in the blackness in his fiction. The current dissertation focuses on this blackness and its medium—humor.Positioning itself in the literary transitional period from modernism to post-modernism, Heller’s fiction conveys a rather complex set of black implications, which not only includes influences from the existentialism prevailing in his age, but also reflects the particular social backgrounds as well as his personal experiences. The black implications essentially concern the survival logic of modern people against an existential and absurd living background. The dissertation argues that hierarchy, mortality and absurdity are the key issues in the black implications in Heller’s Black Humor fiction and attempts to present a well-illustrated network of the blackness through explicating the three key issues from perspectives of sociology, psychology and philosophy. The interdisciplinary framework combines the power theories of Michel Foucault, the argument of Ernest Becker on the struggles between physical mortality and spiritual immortality, and the metaphysics on the separation between existence and essence.The dissertation highlights two concerns in illustrating the blackness in Joseph Heller’s fiction. Firstly, it makes a point of interpreting the three black implications and their interrelationship. Although there are not a few essays focusing their attentions on the black nature of Heller’s fiction, few of them have tried to illustrate the general network of these implications. Actually, the three implications are upgraded one after another:power is the key to open the door to Heller’s fictional world, death serves as the threshold to it, and absurdity, the essential issue to understand the blackness, creates the pervasive and fundamental atmosphere inside Heller’s fictional world. Secondly, it focuses on the medium through which the blackness gets to be interpreted. With critics’deeper inquiry into Black Humor fiction, it has become clear that "humor" just functions as the medium while "black" is the nuclear in the term "Black Humor". And this is the reason why Heller claims that he does not employ humor without a black implication in his novels. To Heller, humor is only a medium that could and should convey the blackness to the readers. However, humor also plays an indispensible role in Heller’s Black Humor fiction. On the one hand, humor and blackness are complementary to each other, because the prerequisite of humor, to "make surprise", presupposes the existence of absurdity, which is the essential component in Black Humor. On the other hand, there is always a tension between blackness and humor caused by the contradiction between this prerequisite and the restrictions of social reality, which would eventually lead to the dilemma of Black Humor fiction. This accounts for why Heller’s first novel Catch-22 could never be artistically surmounted by his later works, and predicts the end of Black Humor fiction ever since the very day it came into being.This dissertation is organized into four chapters besides the Introduction and the Conclusion. In the Introduction, it reviews the existing study on Heller’s fiction both abroad and at home, introduces the social, literary and personal influences contributing to Heller’s artistic features, and then generalizes the three main black implications in his fiction:hierarchical power, mortality and absurdity. The following three chapters discuss the three black implications respectively. Chapter One focuses on the implication of power, Chapter Two analyzes the impact of mortality on Heller’s fictional world, and Chapter Three concerns the separation between existence and essence, namely, absurdity. The last chapter examines the medium humor, through which the blackness is interpreted.Chapter One explores the power implication with Foucault’s power theories in four perspectives, that is, the similarity between Panopticon and "Catch-22", sexuality, power discourse and the father-son relationship. The hierarchical system in Heller’s fictional world is rather complicated—With the Panopticon-like "Catch-22" overseeing on top, Heller’s characters are engrossed in their struggles for self-identities. According to Foucault, it is due to the unique layout that Panopticon is considered to be an extremely powerful modern prison—a tower stands in the center circled by a ring-shaped building with all the cells facing the tower. The layout makes sure that the prisoners are under best control with the least investment. And this is exactly the way that "Catch-22" functions. Even though it is intangible, the military rule can manipulate soldiers to behave according to the logic of an absurd world. The only soldier who scorns the existence of the Panopticon-like "Catch-22" and its concomitant absurdity is Yossarian, the protagonist in Catch-22.Heller’s characters are lost in their self-identities under the pressure of the omnipresent absurdity, so they make every effort to obtain a sense of safety. Sexuality without love, the pursuit of discourse power and the tendency of a father to kill his own son are all manifested in their efforts to obtain the sense of safety. First of all, sexuality is a way of reproduction and a symbol for the continuity of life, and that is why all Heller’s protagonists are indulged in sexual activities. What’s more, to confess their sexual motivations and behaviors is a way to reestablish their self-identities for such Heller heroes as Slocum in Something Happened and King David in God Knows. Secondly, the manipulation of discourse power also contributes to the characters’sense of superiority. While language at large adds to the sense of absurdity, discourse power sets up the characters’confidence in the establishment of their self-identities. Therefore, Yossarian is more than happy with the word play when censoring the officials’letters, while Slocum jumps at any chance to outspeak others and manages to resolve life dilemmas just by shifting tenses in discourse. Thirdly, torturing or even murdering their own son is another cruel way of Heller’s characters to obtain their sense of safety. Now that the Oedipus Complex presupposes the potential threat of the son—after he grows up, Oedipus will usurp the throne and kill the father Laius, so it is comprehensible that Laius kills the son first. Henceforth, when Slocum murders his beloved son, he actually eliminates the potential threat for his future life.Chapter Two focuses on the theme of mortality in Heller’s fiction. Actually, while power is essential to establish their identities, death is what Heller’s characters are most afraid of. In The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker argues that "transference" is one of the crucial processes to eliminate the fear of death, and the more abstract a transference object tends to be, the less afraid a person is of his physical termination. Therefore, Heller’s ultimate concern is the spiritual immortality instead of its physical counterpart, even though all Heller’s protagonists are in dread of their physical termination. Even though Yossarian in Catch-22 believes in his survival philosophy and never gives up any chance to be grounded, while Socrates in Picture This scorns any survival philosophy and is always prepared for his physical execution, they essentially share the same belief to achieve the spiritual immortality. This idealistic immortality gives rise to two major consequences.For one consequence, the extreme fear of mortality brings about the characters’ confusion about the time gap between the "tick" sound and the "tock" sound, or to put it simply, the constant time warps. Since "tick" means a beginning and "tock" brings about the ending, the "tock" sound naturally causes the characters’panic. Therefore, characters like Dunbar try every absurd method to prolong the starting "tick" sound and postpone the ending "tock" sound, which also sheds light on the seemingly fragmented structure of Catch-22 and the confusion of the past and the present of Slocum in Something Happened. For the other consequence, since the death god Thanatos never leaves the love god Eros alone, the only way to keep Thanatos away is to become immune to love. This is the reason why Heller’s protagonists make every effort to stay away from love. For example, in Catch-22 Nately is courageous to love but he is also killed first, Yossarian indulges in sex but never falls in deep love, and Slocum in Something Happened secretly and cruelly embraces a death wish towards the women that he loves. Besides, since homosexuality means the belonging to a minority, characters like Major Major in Catch-22 and King David in God Knows spare no effort to exclude themselves from the powerless the-other group. Because the characters try not to show affection towards others, Heller’s fictional world is practically a wasteland of love. Even though death is pervasive in the fictional world, Heller skillfully insinuates a rebirth theme as a "tick" sound to compensate for the motif of spiritual immortality. For example, there are a great many rebirth images in Catch-22, such as the soldier in white symbolizing an Egypt rebirth goddess and Chief White Halfoat symbolizing the Mayan corn god. Sometimes, a death gives rise to a symbolic rebirth of a protagonist. For example, in Good as Gold the death of Sid leads to the awakening of Gold’s Jewish consciousness and in Something Happened the death of the son brings Slocum back to the normal life from the edge of spiritual collapse.Chapter Three explicates absurdity, the third black implication. In Heller’s fictional world, the hierarchical system and the pressing mortality share the same essential meaning—the separation between existence and essence. In The Metaphysics of Absurdity, H. Gene Blocker argues that the origin of absurdity lies in the separation between existence and essence. This separation is imbedded in Heller’s fictional world and confuses Heller’s protagonists as well as his readers about the moon and the finger pointing towards the moon. Heller mainly employs two ways to illustrate this disruption of existence from its supposed essence, namely, to challenge the authority and to make fun of the signifiers. Accordingly, Heller shows such a negative attitude towards the so-called authority and tradition that even God, the extreme authority in Western culture, turns into a clown in God Knows. And Heller also resorts to unusual writing skills such as paradoxes, deja vu and unusual negation to stress the ambiguous relationship between the signifier and the signified.In the absurd world, only those who can manipulate the epistemological disruption could gain the upper hand, while most of those who cannot tragically fall victim to absurdity. Besides, there is also another group of Heller’s characters who resemble Kierkegaard’s absurd knights. Kierkegaard separates his knights into two kinds:the knights of faith and the knights of infinite resignation. While knights of infinite resignation like Dunbar in Catch-22 realize the absurdity of the world, they can never possibly "jump" above the absurdity as knights of faith like Yossarian could do. To become a knight of faith is the main concern and the most miserable torture for Heller’s characters. In a sense, Yossarian as the Heller’s first protagonist is lucky, because Heller easily arranges him to be a knight of faith who "jumps" at the end of the novel, while Heller’s other protagonists are doomed to struggle tragically on the verge of being a knight of faith. No matter whether a knight of faith or a knight of resignation that Heller’s protagonists prove to be, all of them are inevitably exposed to two consequences, loneliness and moral insanity. Loneliness is unavoidable on their way to be a knight of faith, and the disruption between existence and essence endows the immoral with moral implications, which causes the "moral insanity".The last chapter examines humor, the medium of blackness. Actually, the significance of humor lies in the retrospection that it causes rather than the humorous effect on the spot. Since the application of humor is to interpret the black implications, the humor in Heller’s Black Humor fiction has more functions besides the usual social corrective function of the traditional humor. For one thing, it helps the characters and the readers get over the horror caused by the blackness. For another, Heller gets to intensify tactfully the blackness with the manipulation of the readers’expectation of the humor release from the pressure caused by the blackness. The mechanism of Heller’s humor mainly contains four ingredients:the manipulation of the readers’emotions, the unexpected tonal shift between physical and spiritual, the capricious focus changing from the intellectual effect to the effective one and the constant ironic literary references. Because Heller’s protagonists show their nostalgia towards an ideal Orthodox morality, the humor in Heller’s fiction often appears with more generative rather than degenerative satirical edges. With the development of society and the corresponding refreshment of literary themes, to be generative predicts a work to be conservative and eventually fall into literary cliche. However, humor constantly demands a degenerative satire to "make surprise". Hence, there always lies a potential danger for the integration of blackness and humor in Heller’s fiction. With the satirical strength being reduced, the humorous effect and the absurd aura could be diminished till they are totally eliminated. Therefore, blackness and humor will inevitably cancel each other out.The conclusion of the dissertation is condensed into two points. Firstly, Heller’s blackness essentially concerns the modern people’s survival logic against an existential and absurd background. Power, mortality and absurdity are the three key issues in the blackness, which are integrated by the metaphysical separation between existence and essence. It is the willful manipulation of the moon and the finger pointing towards it that the hierarchically dominating class always employs to realize their tyranny; and it is the lack of an essential meaning of mortality that the very mention of death could curdle the protagonists’blood. In this way, lying at the kernel of Heller’s fictional world, absurdity virtually accounts for the occurrence and existence of the blackness. Secondly, the tension between blackness and humor practically predicts the dying away of Black Humor fiction in the 1960s in America. The primary condition for a humor to achieve its effect is to "make surprise". Since Heller’s Black Humor fiction tends to be more generatively satirical, its black implications are doomed to wear the readers’expectations out. When the readers are used to or even tired of the black implications, humor will lose its surprising appeal and the blackness will cease to sustain the readers’attention. Consequently, the humor in Heller’s Black Humor fiction will lose its humorous effect and cannot provoke the readers’retrospection. This is a creative dilemma not only for Joseph Heller but also for other Black Humor novelists. Nevertheless, it can never be denied that Heller’s integration of blackness and humor as well as his original rhetorical devices to achieve this integration is still inspiring contemporary authors, especially those of black humor.更多还原