ABSTRACT
In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels and essays, the desire for fame takes shape through theatrical emulation and imposture. In The Great Gatsby, emulation and imposture create renown, if not notoriety. Known for his shady business deals and his Long Island parties fueled with illegal alcohol, Jay Gatsby’s notoriety is inseparable from his bid for greatness. That greatness, advertised in the title of Fitzgerald’s novel, springs from Gatsby’s impersonation of the manners, accents, and education of well-heeled Americans. Nick Carraway, engrossed in his own performance as a Midwesterner determined to make his fortune by selling bonds in New York, lords his good manners over Gatsby. In return, Gatsby draws on the resources of theatrical realism to make others believe in his authenticity. In imitation of the impresario and playwright David Belasco, Gatsby constructs an identity so faultless in detail that it appears true. Extending the principle of Broadway theatricality to personal relations, Gatsby stirs Nick’s belief in imaginative possibilities as at a play. Theatricality moves out of the theater into the fabrication of identity. Nick and Gatsby adopt roles for themselves and for each other; they impersonate fantasies of the Midwesterner and the rags-to-riches businessman. Class status underlies the various postures and impostures that Gatsby and Nick strike. In this sense, American celebrity culture responds to upward and downward shifts in class. By the same token, imposture, as a trope of American identity, requires susceptibility to and mutual recognition of inauthenticity: illusions do not dissipate just because they are called illusions. By documenting the lies and illusions that contribute to Gatsby’s grandeur-a huckster is most narratively compelling when his imposture is exposed-Nick sees through his neighbor’s ruse but alleges that some necessary measure of phoniness constitutes American celebrity.
