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Alumni College: The World of Scott Fitzgerald

July 17, 2016 - July 22, 2016

Tracey Riley

F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the icons of American literature and a defining figure of the early 20th century. He coined the term "The Jazz Age" to describe the free spirit and energy of the 1920s. His great creation, Jay Gatsby, has become a representative of the self-made man, as well as a warning against valuing material things over all else. But Fitzgerald's life is also a cautionary tale: he was as much a victim of his age as he was its champion. He and his wife, Zelda, became so enamored of the life of wealth, glamour, and fame that they seemed unable to distinguish real life from an endless party. Ultimately, Zelda descended into madness, while Scott became an alcoholic. Fitzgerald struggled in the 1930s to control his drinking, to reform his life, and to remain true to the genius that defined his writing. By the time of his death-of a heart attack at the tragically young age of 44-Fitzgerald had come to represent both the excesses and the glories of the 1920s and 1930s, that stark contrast between the roaring decade of indulgence and the despairing decade of the Great Depression.

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.

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