New Criticism [Tim]

Lois Tyson's New Critical interpretation of Gatsby shows me how a deeper understanding of a text can be achieved through a close analysis of the text itself, without consideration of the historical or biographical context. By inspecting the imagery of the text, Tyson is able to come to the conclusion that :"It is the universal theme of unfulfilled longing, so powerfully carried by the novels' magnificent imagery that has made The Great Gatsby the enduring masterpiece that it is." I particularly liked how she observed the tension between the "idyllic..plenitude, fulfillment, pleasure, and harmony" that surrounds the rich, and the "vulgar" way in which they act. The tension, according to Tyson, mirrors the tension between "[L]ife the way we want it to be, ...[and] life he way it isn't". Additionally, I liked how Tyson notes how ambiguity adds to the overall theme of longing, remarking on Nick’s comment on the city as full of “wild promise of all the mystery and beauty in the world”. We don’t really know what about the city is wild, mysterious, and beautiful, but we do know that Nick longs for it. This new way of reading, is by far the hardest for me to wrap my head around. The fact that the text has “one true meaning” that is carried by the “form of the text” baffles me. How can profound meaning be found in the mechanics of literature? How can one text mean only one thing? How can we disregard the reader, author, and context of the text so easily?