The new woman and the jazz age romantic in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "Flappers and philosophers" : a new philosophy of romantic individualism

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to identify the manner in which F. Scott Fitzgerald, the notorious chronicler of the Jazz Age, created to the general public an image of a hedonistic, rebellious and liberated younger generation in his earliest writings, specifically in the short stories written for ‘The Saturday Evening Post’, one of the most authoritative literary magazines of the time. The selected short stories that are assessed in this regard, namely The Offshore Pirate, Head and Shoulders, The Ice Palace and Bernice Bobs Her Hair, were all popular ‘Post stories’, published between November 1919 and May 1920. They were eventually included in Fitzgerald’s first anthology, Flappers and Philosophers. In the analysis, special attention is given to the complex socio-cultural dynamic of the early twentieth century, when these stories were originally published, and the first chapter of this dissertation reflects the relevance of these historical and contextual considerations in any thorough evaluation of Fitzgerald’s fiction. The flapper, as one of the major representative figures of the era, embodied most of the ideals that we now associate with American modernity; and Fitzgerald played a prominent role in the popularisation of the flapper in his own literary representations. The second chapter familiarises the romantic qualities of Fitzgerald’s stories and explores the changing distribution of power between the sexes, central arguments in both The Offshore Pirate and Head and Shoulders. It is observed that Fitzgerald’s personal experiences, chiefly in his marriage to Zelda née Sayre that coincidentally coincided with the beginning of the Jazz Age in 1920, significantly influenced his portrayal of the drastic changes in mores and behaviour that occurred in this period as well. All of these fundamental aspects are grouped together in one principal argument in the third chapter, which focuses on how the main characters featured in Flappers and Philosophers embody a new philosophy of romantic individualism in their eccentric lifestyles; the basis of this dissertation. This chapter will focus on The Ice Palace and Bernice Bobs Her Hair since both of these stories are complemented by specific comparative observations that are especially illuminating in this respect. This dissertation, furthermore, seeks to reflect the recent critical appraisal that Fitzgerald has achieved, which partly claims that the majority of his neglected stories are in need of a well-deserved reassessment. Nevertheless, besides from complying with this academically-inclined necessity, this dissertation seeks to demonstrate how Fitzgerald evocatively captures the voice of a younger, temperamentally restless, generation to his readers; the essence of his success.