Mapping American Literature with The Great Gatsby

Authors

  • Cathryn Halverson Södertörn University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v56i2.7383

Keywords:

pedagogy, American literature, The Great Gatsby, place, maps

Abstract

Taking The Great Gatsby as its central case study, this essay discusses my method of teaching regional American literature in Nordic classrooms through a liberal use of maps. I argue that closely attending to the cities, states, and regions to which literary texts refer helps students better understand and scrutinize their larger claims.

Author Biography

Cathryn Halverson, Södertörn University

Cathryn Halverson is a Senior Lecturer (docent) in English at Södertörn University. She is the author of several monographs in American literature, including Faraway Women and the Atlantic Monthly (2019) and “A Born Writer”: Juanita Harrison and Her Beautiful World, 1887-1967, forthcoming in 2025 with the University of Massachusetts Press.

References

Bruccoli, Matthew J. “‘An Instance of Apparent Plagiarism’: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, and the First ‘Gatsby’ Manuscript.” The Princeton University Library Chronicle 39, no. 3 (1978): 171–78. https://doi.org/10.2307/26402223.

Cather, Willa. A Lost Lady. Alfred A. Knopf, 1923.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925.

Sawers, Geoff. “USA Literary Map.” The Literary Gift Company. 2011. In consultation with Bridget Hannigan. https://www.theliterarygiftcompany.com/products/usa-literary-map.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Oxford, 1997.

Toomer, Jean. Cane. Boni & Liveright, 1923.

Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. Penguin, 2009.

Downloads

Published

2024-12-12

How to Cite

Halverson, C. (2024). Mapping American Literature with The Great Gatsby. American Studies in Scandinavia, 56(2). https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v56i2.7383

Issue

Vol. 56 No. 2 (2024): Special Issue - Teaching American Studies in Scandinavia

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.