COLUMBIA, Ky. – Area residents will have an opportunity to join the centennial celebration of one of the great American novels at a special April 9 event at Lindsey Wilson College.
The Lindsey Wilson School of Arts and Humanities will hold a screening and discussion of the 2013 film The Great Gatsby on the eve of when F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel of the same name was published in 1925.
The screening will be at 7:30 p.m. CT Wednesday, April 9, in the Lindsey Wilson W.W. Slider Humanities Center Recital Hall. The event will include a brief pre-film talk, as well as a post-film discussion, led by English instructor Kendall Sewell ’13. The event is free and open to the public.
Fitzgerald’s third novel, The Great Gatsby was published April 10, 1925, by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Although it received mostly favorable reviews, the novel was not a commercial success until after it was distributed to U.S. troops during World War II. That also sparked a renewed interest in Fitzgerald’s works and eventually led critics and scholars to declare The Great Gatsby to be one of the great American novels.
“It’s such a teachable book because it’s so rich with symbolism,” said Sewell. “But at the same time, it doesn’t give you the answers on the page.”
Added Lindsey Wilson English professor Rachel Carr ’13, “It’s such an unforgettable book with such a beautiful story.”
Carr said that when she was a Lindsey Wilson undergraduate, she selected The Great Gatsby in a class exercise as a novel she would take to a deserted island.
In addition to its timeless themes and complicated romances, Carr said The Great Gatsby continues to resonate with students because of Fitzgerald’s writing.
“A big reason college students continue to fall in love with the novel is because of its beautiful language,” she said.
Sewell taught high school English before joining the Lindsey Wilson faculty. He said The Great Gatsby “would always be my high school students’ favorite book of the school year.”
“Something about Gatsby became a kind of brainworm for them,” he said.
In addition to being adapted into a play, opera, ballet and opera, The Great Gatsby has been turned into a film five times.
The silent film of 1926 is lost, but the other four (1949, ’74, 2000 and ’13) remain widely available and viewed often. The 2013 film – directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan – was chosen for the April 9 screening at Lindsey Wilson because “I think it translates the best,” said Carr.
Sewell said the 2013 version also has a personal appeal because, like Carr, he first saw it when he was an English student.
“It’s so wrapped up in the nostalgia of the college for me,” he said.
PHOTOS – In celebration of the centennial of The Great Gatsby being published on April 10, 1925, Lindsey Wilson College English professors Rachel Carr and Kendall Sewell will host a screening of the 2013 film adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel at 7:30 p.m. CT Wednesday, April 9, in the college’s W.W. Slider Humanities Center Recital Hall. The event is free and open to the public.
(Duane Bonifer – Lindsey Wilson College)