Abstract

Through the romantic tragedy between Gatsby and Daisy Fitzgerald’s masterpiece The Great Gatsby provides a vivid portrait of the Roaring Twenties in USA. During this period visual culture gradually took the place of print culture, dominating the mass media and even having a considerable impact on literature works when the photography and film industry developed at an incredible pace. This dissertation elaborates on how the visual turn influences the narrative skills in The Great Gatsby from the perspectives of the sensory presentation of characters, the metaphorical presentation of scenarios and the vague presentation of truth. To some extent Fitzgerald makes the best of his excellent writing skills for a picture of the American society of luxury during the Jazz Age while in the meantime he also holds a skeptical attitude towards the accuracy of image as an emerging medium. On this note, Gatsby is doomed to his failure as his dream success is based on piles of dazzling status symbols rather than convincing feats.

Key words: Visual culture; narrative; visualization; metaphor; vagueness

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1 Introduction-1

2 The Visual Turn in The Great Gatsby-2

2.1 Visual culture-2

2.2 Literature views of the visual narrative in The Great Gatsby-3

3 The sensory presentation of characters in The Great Gatsby-4

3.1 The visualization of Gatsby’s disposition-4

3.2 The visualization of Daisy’s voice-5

4 The metaphorical representation of scenarios in The Great Gatsby-6

4.1 Motion capture-6

4.2 Impressionism: light and dream-8

5 The vague representation of the truth in The Great Gatsby-9

5.1 Deception by language-10

5.2 Pseudo-context in image-11

6 Conclusion-12

References-14