Lives and Deaths of Gatsby: A Semantic Reading of a Key Passage in a Powerful Text

In this article, Christine Chollier is dedicated to the question of the interpretation of a key-passage in a text. The material organization of textuality influences the response of the reader, who perceives semantic forms and makes sense of the specific combination of matter and form by actualizing semantic traits and neutralizing others, relying on contexts - internal and external - to validate or invalidate options. The piece of writing under scrutiny relates Gatsby's murder in his swimming-pool. The global context in the novel provides clues to build in and interpret local linguistic features in the light of the elegiac project.