美国文学F·Scott Fitzgerald

1、.,F Scott Fitzgerald,(1896 1940) Born in St. Paul, Minnesota,.,A spokesman for the so-called Jazz Age, setting a personal as well as literary example for a generation whose first commandment was: Do what you will. His novels such as The Great Gatsby (1925), Tender Is the Night (1934), and The Last T

2、ycoon (1941), amplify详述 the melancholy he discovered beneath the glitter灿烂 of American-style success.,.,Jazz Age,A period of U.S. history in the 1920s noted for general prosperity, financial speculation金融投机, Prohibition, the emergence of organized crime, the popularity of jazz and the open pursuit p

3、leasures. It is an epithet applied to the era of the 1920s in the U.S., whose frenetic（狂热的 ） youth of the post war period were conceived as more juvenile（孩子气的 ） and hedonistic（享乐主义） than the “lost generation”. F. Scott Fitzgeralds Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) was a classic representation of the peri

4、od.,.,Prohibition: Enacted in 1919 (and ultimately repealed in 1933), this amendment made it illegal for anyone to manufacture, sell, or transport liquor of any sort.,.,Characters,Jay Gatsby rags-to-riches success story makes him an embodiment of the American dream, idealistic, nave, Daisy Buchannan

5、 Tom Buchannan Nick Carraway,.,Narrator,Nick Carraway: both as a character and the narrator As a character, he is “within”, involving himself in the actions of the story. As a narrator, he is standing away from the story and able to give an objective presentation to the events and characters of the

6、novel. How?,.,Questions (chapter 3),How are Gatsbys parties? What do they show? Who are his party guests? What do they do or not do in the parities? What does this show? What information do you get about Gatsby himself? What is the relationship between Gatsby and his guests? Are there differences be

7、tween Nick and other guests?,.,Why is the man with owl-eyed spectacles impressed with the fact that the books in the libraries are real? What does he expect? What does the fact that he has been drunk for one week indicate? How do you understand this? “I was enjoying myself now. I had taken two finge

8、r-bowl of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental, and profound.”,.,through the haze薄雾 of alcohol, it seems to become steeped使充满 in meaning. Fitzgerald offers candid率直的 commentary into life in the Jazz Age. He is offering harsh social criticism, by s

9、uggesting that the only way in which a sense of meaning is to be found in this time is through altering ones sense of consciousness. Through the partying, people were able to bring meaning (regardless of the fact it may be false meaning) into their otherwise meaningless lives. For them, drinking was

10、 an escape, allowing them to exit the mundane平凡的 world and take part in something bigger, something more meaningful.,.,“It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance . . . that you may come across four or five times in life. His smile, Nick asserts, believed in you as you wou

11、ld like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.elaborate formality of speechpicking his words with care.” Indication? a well-crafted appearance.,.,Part of Fitzgeralds strength as a writer comes from his imagistic st

12、yle. His writing is very sensory感观 -oriented. What examples of sensory-oriented imagery (sight, taste, touch, smell, sound) can you find in chapter 3? What kind of atmosphere do these details help create? How do they affect you as a reader?,.,Fitzgerald, Gatsby and Nick,If Gatsby represents one part

13、 of Fitzgeralds personality, the flashy俗丽的 celebrity who pursued and glorified wealth in order to impress the woman he loved, then Nick represents another part: the quiet, reflective Midwesterner adrift in the lurid可怕的 East.,.,ThemeAmerican dream is an Illusion,The life Gatsby has created for himsel

14、f is an illusion. The name: “the Great Gatsby” suggests the sort of vaudeville 杂耍 billing that would have been given to an acrobat, an escape artist, or a magicianillusion. Daisy as his dream, his successunworthy, shallow, immoralillusion. The affluent parties are shallow, materialistic, emptyillusion,.,The story is about the decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching支配一切的 cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The reckless jubilance欢呼 that led to decadent颓废的 parties and wild jazz musicepito