2nd BACHILLERATO: READING FOR PLEASURE
If it ever
occurs to you to read "The Great
Gatsby", by F. Scott Fitzgerald - or even watch any of the two film versions -
you will find that the following background notes and videos as well as the links to the film
trailers are particularly useful.
·
The
Roaring Twenties is a term sometimes used
to refer to the 1920s, characterizing the
decade's distinctive cultural edge in New York City, Paris, Berlin, London, and
many other major cities during a period of sustained economic prosperity.
French speakers called it the "années folles" ("Crazy
Years"), emphasizing the era's social, artistic, and cultural
dynamism. Normality returned to politics in the wake of hyper-emotional
patriotism during World War I, jazz music
blossomed, the flapper redefined modern
womanhood, and Art Deco peaked. Economically,
the era saw the large-scale diffusion and use of automobiles, telephones,
motion pictures, and electricity, unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated
consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle and
culture. The media focused on celebrities, especially sports heroes and movie
stars, as cities rooted for their home team and filled the new palatial cinemas
and gigantic stadiums. In most major countries women were given the right to
vote for the first time. Finally the Wall Street Crash
of 1929 ended the era, as the Great Depression
set in worldwide, bringing years of worldwide gloom and hardship. The social
and cultural features known as the Roaring Twenties began in leading metropolitan
centers, especially Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York City,
Philadelphia, Paris and London, then spread widely in the aftermath of World
War I. By the middle of the decade, prosperity was widespread, with the second
half of the decade later becoming known as the "Golden Twenties". The
spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity
associated with modernity and a break with traditions. Everything seemed to be
feasible through modern technology. New technologies, especially automobiles,
moving pictures and radio extended 'modernity' to a large part of the
population. Formal decorative frills were shed in favor of practicality in both
daily life and architecture. At the same time, jazz and dancing rose in popularity,
in opposition to the mood of the specter of World War I. As such, the period is
also often referred to as the Jazz Age.
·
Flappers
were a "new breed" of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short
skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for
what was then considered acceptable behaviour. Flappers were seen as brash for
wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking,
driving automobiles and otherwise flouting social norms. Flappers had their
origins in the liberal period of the Roaring Twenties, the social, political
turbulence and increased transatlantic cultural exchange that followed the end
of World War I, as well as the export of American jazz culture to Europe.
Click
HERE ("The Roaring Twenties")
Click
HERE ("The Roaring 20´s: US History")
Click
HERE ("Dance Craze")
·
Art Deco is
an influential visual arts design style which first appeared in France during
the 1920s, flourished internationally during the 30s and 40s, then waned in the
post-World War II era. It is an eclectic style that combines traditional craft
motifs with Machine Age imagery and materials. The style is often characterized
by rich colors, bold geometric shapes, and lavish ornamentation. Deco emerged
from the Interwar period when rapid industrialization was transforming culture.
One of its major attributes is an embrace of technology. Art Deco can be
defined as an assertively modern style that ran to symmetry rather than
asymmetry, and to the rectilinear rather than the curvilinear; it responded to
the demands of the machine and of new material and the requirements of mass
production. During its heyday Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, exuberance,
and faith in social and technological progress.
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| Chrysler Building spire, Manhattan |
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| A crowd gathers outside the Stock Exchange after the crash (New York) |
·
The
Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as Black
Tuesday and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, began in late
October 1929 and was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of
the United States, when taking into consideration the full extent and duration
of its fallout. The crash signaled the beginning of the 10-year Great
Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries and did not end
in the United States until the onset of American mobilization for World War II
at the end of 1941. 15 million people had unemployment coming to them after the
banks crashed.
·
The
Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic
depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great
Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in 1930 and
lasted until the late 1930s or middle 1940s. It was the longest, most
widespread, and deepest depression of the 20th century. The depression
originated in the U.S., after the fall in stock prices that began around
September 4, 1929, and became worldwide news with the stock
market crash of October 29, 1929.The Great Depression had devastating
effects in countries rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and
prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%.
Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25%, and in some countries rose as high as 33%.
Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy
industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and
rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by approximately 60%. Some economies
started to recover by the mid-1930s. In many countries, the negative effects of
the Great Depression lasted until the end of World War II.
·
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 – 1940) was an American author of novels
and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age. He is
widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" (the
generation that came of age during World War I, including distinguished artists
such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, T. S. Eliot, John Dos Passos, and
Isadora Duncan). He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The
Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night. The Great Gatsby has been the basis for
numerous films of the same name. Paris in the 1920s proved the most influential
decade of Fitzgerald's development. The Great Gatsby, considered his
masterpiece, was published in 1925. Fitzgerald made several excursions to
Europe, mostly Paris and the French Riviera, and became friends with many
members of the American expatriate community in Paris, notably Ernest
Hemingway. Although Fitzgerald's passion lay in writing novels, only his first
novel sold well enough to support the opulent lifestyle that he and Zelda, her
wife, adopted as New York celebrities. Because of this lifestyle, as well as
the bills from Zelda's medical care when they came, Fitzgerald was constantly
in financial trouble and often required loans. Fitzgerald had been an alcoholic
since his college days, and became notorious during the 1920s for his
extraordinarily heavy drinking, leaving him in poor health by the late 1930s.
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| F. Scott FitzGerald |
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| Front cover art for the book The Great Gatsby |
Film trailers
2013
version
1974 versión
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