In this paper, I attempt to perform a formalist reading of a novel that has become a staple piece in American literary studies and instruction. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is one of the most frequently introduced works of American literature in the university in Korea. The reason for its visibility has to do with the approachable thematics of the novel. It is a workable text for Korean readers, who desire to some extent to read American literature as somehow representatives of or as engagements with national history, identity, and values. I state that while this thematic valuation of the novel is certainly necessary and valuable, an exclusive emphasis on the content and the plot radically curtails our appreciation as readers of the deeper layers of fiction-making at work in the novel. it is this fiction-making - in terms of the style of the novel - which orients my discussion of Fitzgerald's work. I thus present a reading of the Great Gatsby that attends to its experimental stylistics. It may seem odd to associate Fitzgerald with experimentalism, especially since it is precisely the accessibility of his work (the conventionalism of his descriptive narrative writing) that attracts many readers across age or national language. However, in this paper, at the basis of my argument is that there is an experimentalism to Fitzgerald's novel, especially in the first-person narration of Nick Carraway. I argue that tracing Nick's role as the narrator-character can provide an understanding of how the character of Nick in the novel is established and constructed through his narratorial voice, language, and tone. In addition, I state that since it is in fact through Nick's narration and focalization that Gatsby becomes created and shaped as a character, I argue that Fitzgerald's characterization of Nick - and Nick's distinguishing narratorial style - is central to more nuanced reading of the novel.
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