The Lost Generation

1. Modernism In and Out of America The Lost Generation

2. Lost Generation • Term referring to a group of writers active in the aftermath of World War I—the 1920s and early 1930s • Conveys the disillusionment of a young, postwar generation characterized by lost hope, abandoned faith in progress, and despair over the present and future • Usually refers to American expatriate writers such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald who went to Europe for creative purposes. Sometimes T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound are mentioned in relation to this group, as is Gertrude Stein.

3. Lost Generation • Allegedly, Stein, quoting a mechanic, said to Ernest Hemingway, “You are all a lost generation.” The line also appears in Stein’s preface to Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises (1926). Gertrude Stein

4. Lost Generation • Prevalent notion among the expatriate writers was that they had inherited values that no longer pertained in a postwar world. • In keeping with Modernism, alienation is a prevalent theme in their work—individual alienation, as well as a sense of the modern world being alienated from history and tradition.

5. Lost Generation In the 1920s, President Calvin Coolidge declared, “The business of America is business.” The philosophy that this statement exemplifies was one aspect of postwar American society that the Lost Generation writers wanted to escape in “light[ing] out for the Territory” of Europe. They felt that American society was at best unappreciative and at worst hostile to artistic pursuits. The concerns about mass culture infringing on art expressed in Modernism were prevalent in the minds and works of Lost Generation writers.

6. Lost Generation • Cultural exchange: One significant outcome of the Lost Generation expatriate experience was that these writers soaked in the cosmopolitan air of European cities such as Paris and Barcelona, bringing this experience back to America with them and influencing the emergence of an American cosmopolitanism. This exchange provides further evidence of Modernism’s transatlantic, transnational scope. Paris, c. 1920s

7. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) • Born in St. Paul, Minnesota • Developed literary aspirations while a student at Princeton in 1914-1915 • Joined the army in the buildup to WWI (the war ended before FSF saw action) and was initially stationed in Alabama, where he met Zelda Sayre, a momentous turn in both their lives • FSF was in love with Zelda, but knew he could not be a provider; intensified his desire to publish his first novel F. Scott and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald

8. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) (1920) The novel made FSF an overnight sensation. (1925) Written after FSF and Zelda moved to Paris In Paris, FSF struck up a friendship with Ernest Hemingway.

9. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) • Born in Oak Park, Illinois • Started his writing career at the age of 17 writing for a newspaper in Kansas • After the U.S. entered WWI, Hemingway enlisted as a volunteer in an Italian ambulance unit • Hemingway was wounded and spent a significant amount of time in wartime hospitals, giving him inspiration for his fiction.

10. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) (1926) A consummate novel of the Lost Generation. Hemingway wrote it during his time in Paris living as an expatriate. (1929) Inspired by Hemingway’s time in the Italian ambulance unit in WWI.