Presenter(s): Ashley Fale-Olsen — English
Faculty Mentor(s): Corbett Upton
Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Herstory Rediscovered
In the first novel by Donna Tartt, published in 1992, titled “The Secret History,” the author uses fate as if it has agency over the characters. Although the novel is set in America during the 1980s, the fatalistic tone of the novel and the usage of the prologue, which divulges the crime and the guilty parties, serve to create a sense of fate that mirrors that of a Greek Tragedy rather than an American novel. This paper will serve to closely examine the book alongside traditional themes of Greek Tragedy, instead of the American view of fate, which places the individual in control of their own fate. This subversion is important within the context of American novels, and to understand the writing style and concepts of Tartt’s literary work.