I think books like this actually reshape the people who read them.
Click play to listen. Recorded on May 16, 2009.
Sometimes all it takes to change your mind is confrontation with a new perspective. Classics in Context is a seminar sequence for teachers led by renowned humanities scholars. The series takes a fresh look at both established and contemporary literary classics. Giving teachers a chance to renew professionally and personally, the Chicago Humanities Festival supports teachers in their pursuit to revive seasoned and contemporary classic texts through study and conversation alongside their colleagues.
In this session of Classics in Context, Julia Stern, associate professor of English and American studies at Northwestern University, delves into the dark side of F. Scott Fitzgerald's celebrated novel The Great Gatsby (1925). Stern explores the novel's themes of race, gender, duality, money, and machines and shares her personal experience of reading Gatsby as a high school student, a graduate student, and again in preparation for Classics in Context.
Above: Detail from the dust jacket of Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1922. Illustration by John Held Jr.
