Tea with Edie and Fitz

Date of Award

4-2012

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

English

First Advisor

Dr. Steve Feffer

Second Advisor

Dr. Jon Adams

Third Advisor

Dr. Cynthia Klekar

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Terry Williams

Keywords

Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, jazz age, gilded age, famous literary meetings, expatriate writers

Abstract

The Jazz age and the Gilded Age collide in Tea with Edie and Fitz, a play that chronicles the tempestuous meeting of literary icons Edith Wharton and F. Scott Fitzgerald at her estate for tea in the 1920s. In scenes that jump backward and forward chronologically and that span the entire globe (from glittering expatriate Paris to roaring post-WWI Manhattan), the play examines the lives of two authors at the height of their powers and imagines what may have happened in that meeting that led them to never speak again. Particular attention is also paid to Fitzgerald's relationship with his beautiful and troubled Southern wife Zelda and Wharton's with the ghost of her mentor and longtime companion Henry James, calling into question themes of gender, sanity, time, the purpose of art, and the nature of love and loss.

Comments

A print copy can be found in Waldo Library at call number PS9999.2.P376 and can be requested through Interlibrary Loan.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Abstract Only

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS