AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 5, Number 1. February 2021 Pp. 279-295
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol5no1.20
Reading F.S. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby through Aristotle’s Eyes: Friendship, Gifts, and
Commodities
Ibrahim Henna
University Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi Ouzou, Algeria
Correspondent Author: hennaibra@hotmail.fr
Sabrina Zerar
University Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi Ouzou, Algeria
Received: 10/17/2020 Accepted: 1/19/2021 Published: 2/24/2021
Abstract:
This research explores the interlocked notions of friendship, community, gift, and commodity culture in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. It seeks to demonstrate that Fitzgerald’s ethical vision of friendship, community, the Bad, and the Good are deeply shaped by Aristotle’s works The Nicomachean Ethics, The Politics, and The Metaphysics. The extent to which Aristotle has shaped the form and contents of The Great Gatsby, a novel rightly described as a classic of its genre and how far the contentious aspect of its gendered and orientalized characterization can be traced to Fitzgerald’s dialogic relation with the Greek philosopher are among certain questions that this research addresses. The approach to the issue and the related questions stated above is eclectic. It draws its paradigms, partly from Bakhtin’s dialogical theory, partly from economic and cultural anthropology, and partly from postcolonial, historical theory of the type elaborated by Said and Fanon.
Key-words: Aristotle, 1920s America, community, commodities, friendship, Fitzgerald, gifts
Cite as: Henna, I. & Zerar, S. (2021). Reading F.S. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby through Aristotle’s Eyes: Friendship, Gifts, and Commodities. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 5 (1) 279-295.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol5no1.20
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