Petrolieri e mucchi di cenere: The Great Gatsby e l’economia energetica

This article argues that The Great Gatsby is a novel deeply concerned with the temptations and dangers of fossil fuel culture. After providing an overview of the contemporaneous Teapot Dome Scandal, Stecopoulos examines Fitzgerald’s subtle linkage of the novel’s more precarious characters with petro-modernity. By analyzing figural accounts of Gatsby as oil detector, Myrtle Wilson as gusher, and George Wilson as depleted energy field, the essay offers an ecologically oriented account of a classic American novel.