Leila Behrouzfar

Echoes of Culture Industry in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Selected Novels: a Cultural Study Leila Behrouzfar

Being known as one of the leading approaches of the Twentieth century, ?cultural Marxism? has been widely used in both sociology and literary circles since Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci?s and Georg Lukacs? theories were deemed as the core basis of the Frankfurt School theory of ?cultural Marxism.? Being defined as the translation of economy-centric Marxism into culture-oriented neo-Marxism by the initiating figures of the first generation of the Frankfurt School, namely, Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, the idea of ?culture industry? is a plague by product of capitalism for its profit making motives that propels forth standardization and liquidation of individuality; hence, culture has been mass produced and deprived of individuality and uniqueness. This thesis is an attempt to evaluate F. Scott Fitzgerald?s The Beautiful and Damned and The Great Gatsby in the light of a cultural Marxist theorist Theodor W. Adorno. It is illustrated that how ?culture industry? demonstrates itself in various forms such as racism, jazz music, consumerism; instrumental rationality, and fetish character in two of the representative novels of the America?s Roaring Twenties.