Retiring English Professor Thomas Cousineau delivers his "Last Class" lecture to returning Washington College alumni during the recent Alumni Weekend. The event happened 1 June, 2013 in William Smith Hall, room 222.
Here are ten aspects of Heart of Darkness for which there are equivalents in The Great Gatsby: 1. The plot involves a group of people who leave their homes for a place that is foreign to them. 2. One of them is singled out as being worthy of special attention. 3. The origins of this exceptional person are obscure. 4. He is involved in dubious activities. 5. The narrator becomes involved with him largely as an observer. 6. The narrator belongs to this group of displaced people but also distances himself from them. 7. The group ultimately repudiates the exceptional individual and banishes him fro their company. 8. Unlike everyone else, the narrator identifies with him. 9. The narrator creates a narrative that distinguishes sharply between the admirable individual and the ignoble group. 10. He tells the story of his experiences in this foreign environment only after he has returned home.
I enjoyed this lecture very much. Just saw today in NYT that the Great Gatsby entered the public domain on Jan 2021 so we will see new editions and adaptations perhaps. I miss your classes!
Excellent talk. I read the novel once. Reading it again after watching this lecture. I'll have other things to look at. I'm curious to read Heart of Darkness and look for 10 areas of comparison.
The love theme in the Gatsby is autobiographical in nature. Study Fitz' life and his relationship with G. King and Z. Sayre and you will understand the Gatsby better.
"Differently" perhaps rather than "better." Have you watched "Gatsby in Connecticut: The Untold Story"? I personally don't find this kind of autobiographical research relevant to my own interest in the uncanny elements of a literary masterpiece, but I would not claim that this interest is superior to another reader's. De gustibus non disputandum est! I have, since giving this lecture eight years ago, studied Fitzgerald's relationship with John Keats, about which I knew little at the time, and have included it in chapter one -- "Fixing Things in 'The Great Gatsby'" -- of my forthcoming book, "The Séance of Reading: Uncanny Designs in Modernist Writing." I pair this with the final chapter, "Framing Them in 'Light in August'"
Prof. Cousineau, great talk about Gatsby. I am wondering, is there any way to get a copy of the comparisons between Gatsby and Heart of Darkness that you gave out before your lecture? Thanks! Also, what is your opinion of Matthew Bruccoli's work as he seems to be regarded as an expert on this novel?
Hello, Jake. I'm glad that you enjoyed the talk. I'm now working on another Gatsby talk that I'll be giving this Fall in Constanta, Romania, so I should have my handout on the Gatsby/Heart of Darkness comparison handy and will send it to you if you give me your email address. As for Matthew Bruccoli,I think that it's fair to say that our approaches are diametrically opposed. Where he would talk about "originality" -- whether Gatsby's or Fitzgerald's -- I would stress the imitative nature of their uncannily parallel desires -- Gatsby to imitate the behavior of men who belong to a social class that will never accept him as a member and Fitzgerald to imitate the work of his literary predecessors (most importantly Joseph Conrad) in the hope of joining the company of great writers who have produced literary masterpieces. The great difference between them is that Gatsby's imitation of rich men is slavishly obvious while Fitzgerald's imitation of his literary "betters" is creative.
Thomas Cousineau Thank you sir. I will message you on here. Recently, I read that a close friend and neighbor of the Fitzgerald's was a baseball player who was nicknamed "Owl Eyes" by another player during the time of the 1919 World Series scandal and that this was the inspiration for the Owl Eyes character. I keep uncovering these little bits of interesting information about the novel. I also have read some criticism that is harsh toward Fitzgerald and claims that he did not (play)giarize Conrad very well at all, even though he tried his best.
Jake Alden Thanks for that detail about Owl Eyes, Jake. I'd like to incorporate it into the chapter on Gatsby that I'm now writing for my new book. Can you give me a reference? Also, I'd like much to know who else has criticized Fitzgerald for his use of Conrad, which I should definitely take into account. You could reply to me here or via email, which I check more often, at tcousineau2@washcoll.edu.
and as Tina Turner says: "What is love but a second hand emotion?" Does anyone know if there is any word in the story about where the Buchanan monies come from? I'm not up to another reread today.
Yes, the entire lecture is inspired by Girard's concept of triangular desire. If I've added anything to Girard's development of this idea in his DECEIT, DESIRE, AND THE NOVEL, it would be in my focus on the uncanny parallel between this form of desire as it applies, on the one hand, to Gatsby and, on the other, to Nick Carraway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I don't think that Girard himself considers this author/narrator/protagonist entanglement. His emphasis is, rather, on the author's liberation from triangular desire.
@@joyce82able could you give your interpretation of the light at the end of Daisy's dock if it is not a symbol? You mentioned it but didn't quite get round to elaborating it and that intrigued me.
@@matthewgreen1930 I was hoping for an elaboration too! I am wondering if it is a semantic dispute or a more radical one... I can't see how the green light could be dismissed as not symbolic and would love to hear the argument here. Please @joyce82able!
I think what I meant by that remark is that the green light should not be thought of as symbolizing a particular thing. Rather, it can stand for anything and everything that one wants precisely because it is out of reach. By the way, I learned the other day while watching "The Great Gatsby in Connecticut: The Untold Story" that there really was a green light at the end of the dock that Scott and Zelda saw across Long Island Sound in the Summer of 1920 when they were vacationing in Westport, Connecticut.
