Queering the Canon: a Queer Reading of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The present article aims to undertake a queer reading (Sedgwick, 2002) of the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald based on queer theory. The main objective consists of verifying the apparent queerness of the protagonist considering the choice of words in the novel, the time it takes place (1920s) and his relationship with other characters. A textual analysis has been carried out taking into consideration the queer elements of the novel, such as the gay and lesbian signs that corroborate with the queer subtext that appears as a result of Nick Carraway’s gay sensibility within the narrative (Tyson, 2015). In this sense, excerpts that readers might interpret as queer-coded have been analysed. The results show that it is possible to identify not only the queer subtext of the novel but also why queer readers might relate to it.