AS 220.115 - Mitchell, Fitzgerald, and American Class Identity

Institution:

Johns Hopkins University

Subject:

Description:

English General Banastre Tarleton was reviled throughout the American South for his extreme brutality during the War of American Independence. Why, then, did Margaret Mitchell select Tarleton as the surname for the twin brothers who are courting the Southern belle Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind? Did Mitchell intend the name both as an historical reference, and as a literary reference? In four short stories, F. Scott Fitzgerald used the fictional town of Tarleton, Georgia as the backdrop for his disparagement of the notion that social integration was desirable—much less even possible. Did Mitchell conceive her novel as a counterweight to Fitzgerald's depictions of the futility of attempts at class mobility—not only in those stories, but also in The Great Gatsby? What's at stake in the commitment to resisting or promoting class fluidity? How does Mitchell's debate with Fitzgerald illustrate the role social standing plays in modern America?

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.jhu.edu

Phone Number:

(410) 516-8000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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