This essay investigates the “political aesthetics” of electric lighting in Manhattan during 1913–1922, particularly the conflicting styles of public and private lighting, both urban and domestic, portrayed within F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1922 The Beautiful and Damned. Using the method of “topographic literary analysis”, it traces the novel’s two main protagonists, of different gender and class, as they move through New York and its various levels of society. At times, Fitzgerald’s own perspective is introduced via other autobiographical writings. Two main points are emphasised: firstly, “topographic” literary analyses might provide an embodied-relational method for re-narrating and accurately situating historical experience, particularly its subtler, affective, or atmospheric properties previously deemed too difficult to register by historians; secondly, electric lighting is shown to hold significant agency over Fitzgerald’s human protagonists, acting not as a mere prop, but a third protagonist in and of itself, with effects that are both highly gendered and classed.

中文翻译：

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“狂欢节中的修道院”：F. Scott Fitzgerald 曼哈顿的电灯和性别氛围

这篇文章调查了 1913 年至 1922 年曼哈顿电灯的“政治美学”，特别是在 F. Scott Fitzgerald 1922 年的《美丽与诅咒》中描绘的城市和家庭公共和私人照明的冲突风格。使用“地形文学分析”的方法，它追溯了小说的两个不同性别和阶级的主要主人公，他们在纽约及其各个社会阶层中穿行。有时，菲茨杰拉德自己的观点是通过其他自传体作品介绍的。强调两个要点：首先，“地形”文学分析可能提供一种具身关系的方法来重新叙述和准确定位历史经验，特别是历史学家以前认为难以记录的更微妙、情感或大气的特性；