Historical/Political Background
The phrase "Lost Generation," as coined by Gertrude Stein, refers specifically to ex-patriot writers who left the
United States to take part in the literary culture of cities such as Paris and London during the 1920s.
Famous Writers of the Lost Generation
B. Migration
Influence and Impact of the Lost Generation
Works Cited- Continued
Writers willingly accepted the name given to them by Gertrude Stein: the lost generation. Out of their disillusion and rejection, the writers built a new literature, impressive in the glittering 1920s and the years that followed.
Works Cited
B. Hemingway
Works Cited- Continued
After decades of excitement and futurist dreams on both sides of the Atlantic—typified by the Great Exhibitions in London, Paris, and Chicago from 1851—the War reflected the dark, disturbing underside of technological invention.
Hemingway did away with the florid prose of the 19th century Victorian era and replaced it with a lean, clear prose based on action.
In general, this generation was disillusioned by the large number of deaths in the War and rejected many of the previous generations' ideas of appropriate behavior, morality, and gender roles.
Many young artists flocked to Greenwich Village, Chicago, and San Francisco, determined to protest and intent on creating new art.
A. F. Scott Fitzgerald
The literary works of these writers were innovative for their time and have influenced many future generations in their styles of writing.
A. World War I
Like the thousands of tourists who flocked to Paris, they were stirred by the city's physical beauty, its sense of history, its fine restaurants and sidewalk cafés, and its lively and sometimes even decadent nightlife
"Literary Expatriates in Paris." Literary Expatriates in Paris. Geniuses Together, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.lib.unc.edu/rbc/french_expatriates/paris.html>.
"The "Lost Generation"" American Literature in Europe -. Online Gallery, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/amliteuro/lostgen.html>.
"The Lost Generation." The Lost Generation. Montgomery College, 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/hpolscrv/jbolhofer.html>.
Hemingway's novels pioneered a new style of writing which many generations after tried to imitate.
Paris exercised a magnetic attraction upon several generations of artists and intellectuals, large numbers of whom migrated to the French capital from all over the world.
The years immediately after World War I brought a highly vocal rebellion against established social, sexual, and aesthetic conventions and a vigorous attempt to establish new values.
The Lost Generation of Literature in the 1920's
Another of Fitzgerald's novels, The Great Gatsby does the same where the illusion of happiness hides a sad loneliness for the main characters.
The novels produced by the writers of the Lost Generation give insight to the lifestyles that people lead during the 1920's in America.
He also employed a technique by which he left out essential information of the story in the belief that omission can sometimes strengthen the plot of the novel.
Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise shows the young generation of the 1920's masking their general depression behind the forced exuberance of the Jazz Age.
These writers were self-exiles, who chose to leave a homeland they considered artistically, intellectually, politically, racially, or sexually limiting.
They were drawn to Paris for it's artistic and intellectual scene, along with
its apparent tolerance for innovation and experimentation, by the high respect for artist's of all classes, and by the accompanying level of freedom allowed to the individual in his or her search for identity and artistic voice.
"American Literature." Infoplease. Infoplease, 2000-2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/entertainment/american-literature.html>.
"The Lost Generation." Teaching the American 20's. Harry Ransom Center, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/educator/modules/teachingthetwenties/theme_viewer.php?theme=big>.
Maya Gandara