The World of Scott Fitzgerald July 17- 22, 2016
Through it all, Fitzgerald composed some of the most memorable literature of his age. His first novel, This Side of Paradise, is one of the most brilliant coming-of-age stories in American literature. The success of this novel made it possible for Scott to wed his golden girl, Zelda Sayre. Throughout the 1920s he composed a cluster of the finest short fiction any American writer ever produced. When he published The Great Gatsby in 1925, it was recognized by many as the most extraordinary novel of the modern period. To this day, it holds a special place in the canon of American literature as one of our archetypal stories. His heartbreaking 1934 novel, Tender is the Night, reveals Fitzgerald's own sense of self-recrimination, for his wasted talent, his failure to fulfill his great promise, and especially the terrible breakup of his marriage. Fitzgerald is one of the great chroniclers of the American Dream, the tantalizing myth that beckons to us all-the bountiful promise of America, and the crushing disappointment when that promise fails us. But, like Gatsby himself, we refuse to surrender to that disappointment: "And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
In this program, we'll examine Fitzgerald's key works, including The Great Gatsby, the central short stories, and Tender is the Night. We will also engage Fitzgerald's time and place, putting him in the context of other great American writers of the period, such as Ernest Hemingway, his friend and rival. Serving as lead faculty in the program is Marc Conner, the Ballengee Professor of English and interim provost.
Above image by The World's Work (The World's Work (June 1921), p. 192)