Dianne E. Bechtel’s article, “Jay Gatsby, Failed Intellectual: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Trope for Social Stratification,” appears in the January 2018 issue of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, published by the Penn State University Press. The article explores F. Scott Fitzgerald’s drawing of Jay Gatsby in conjunction with Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the habitus. Bechtel explains the social and economic realities within the author that make up character behavior and plot construction in The Great Gatsby. Economically inculcated factors dictate the outcomes for all of Fitzgerald’s characters, and figure prominently most especially Jay Gatsby’s death. The article argues that the social structures and relevant practices of economic status in literature and everyday life are products of inculcated yet unperceived socio-political structures and substructures.
Instructor Publishes Article on “Jay Gatsby, Failed Intellectual”
