Introduction

Mitchell: Gone with the Wind

In this course, Professor Helen Taylor (University of Exeter) explores Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. We start by thinking about tremendous impact of the novel, as well as the celebrated and critically acclaimed film adaptation starting Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. After that, we explore the life and career of the novel's author – Margaret Mitchell – including an account of how the book came to be written, before turning to the issues of war and slavery in the novel itself. In the fourth module, we think about Scarlett O'Hara as a representative of the 'Southern belle' stereotype, before thinking about the many retellings of the Gone with the Wind story by subsequent writers and film-makers. In the sixth module, we look more closely at the relationship between Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, before moving on in the seventh module to think about how the novel engages with transgression and loss, and why Gone with the Wind might still speak to us today.

Introduction

In this module, we introduce Gone with the Wind, thinking in particular about the success and critical acclaim of both the novel (1936) and the film (1939), as well as its ongoing popular appeal and cultural impact.