The Lost
Generation
Defined by:
 the generation of young people who
came of age during and shortly after
World War I, also known as the WWI
generation
 the feeling of disillusionment of
American writers living in Europe
(especially Paris) during WWI to
WWII
“That is what you are. That's what you all are...
All of you young people who served in the
war. You are a lost generation.”
— Gertrude Stein
-In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway reveals that the phrase was
actually originated by the garage owner who serviced Stein's
car. When a young mechanic failed to repair the car in a way
satisfactory to Stein, the owner shouted at her, "You are all a
generation perdu.“
-Stein, in telling Hemingway the story, added, "That is what you
are. That's what you all are... All of you young people who
served in the war. You are a lost generation." This generation
included distinguished artists such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S.
Eliot, John Dos Passos, Waldo Peirce, Alan Seeger, and Erich
Maria Remarque.
Some Key Writers of the Lost
Generation
Ernest Hemingway*
F. Scott Fitzgerald*
John Dos Passos*
E.E. Cummings*
Gertrude Stein*
Ford Maddox Ford
Sylvia Beach
Archibald MacLeish
Ezra Pound*
Sherwood Anderson
James Joyce*
Zelda Fitzgerald*
John Steinbeck
William Carlos Williams
Modernism:
 The writers/artists among the “lost
generation” have become synonymous with
“Modernism” (“modernist” movement)
 Refers to the radical shift in aesthetic and
cultural sensibilities evident in the art and
literature of the post-World War One period.
- Use of deceptive appearances to hide
difficult truths
- Departure from frilly, ornamental
language to a more direct style
Imagist:
 Intellectuals and artists believed the previous  A contingent of modernist poets,
generation’s way of doing things was
culturally bankrupt, so one of the key
characteristics of Modernist works was to
completely break with tradition.
 Long-held conventions would be replaced by
(Pound, TS Elliott) known for:
-minimalist language
-a lessening of structural rules
-a direct, cold, almost mechanized
elements such as:
writing style
- the “unreliable” narrator
-poems often short, unrhymed
- stream-of-consciousness
-line between poetry and prose
- the disruption of narrative coherence/plot
was often blurred
sequencing
-no more preoccupations with
- a preoccupation with the inner self
beauty and nature; subject matter
- alteration of what constitutes truth/reality
now limitless
•born on July 21, 1899 in Illinois.
Ernest
Hemingway
•Hemingway first went to Paris in WWI as an
ambulance driver at age 18
•November 1921, Hemingway went to Paris as a
reporter where the whole of literature was being
changed by the likes of Ezra Pound, James Joyce,
Gertrude Stein and Ford Maddox Ford.
•Traveled to Spain in 1937 to cover the Spanish Civil
War for the North American Newspaper Alliance; also
covered the Chinese-Japanese war in 1941
•1944-1946 Hemingway returned to Paris with the
troops to report WW2.
•distinctive writing style had an enormous influence on
20th-century fiction. As a Modernist, he denounced
ornamental language and was known for his sparse,
blunt, utterly straight-forward writing style. He uses this
ironically, however, as his characters often have hidden
agendas.
•1954 won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and died on
July 2, 1961 of self inflicted gunshot wounds.
Well-Known Works
( (1926) The Sun Also Rises
(1929) A Farewell to Arms
(1936) The Snows of Kilamanjaro
(1940) For Whom the Bell Tolls
( (1952) The Old Man and the Sea
-Hemingway was treated for depression and suicidal thoughts
with electric shock therapy.
-According to Jefferey Meyers, Hemingway received "between
11 to 15 shock treatments that instead of helping him most
certainly hastened his demise."
-One of the side effects of shock therapy is the loss of
memory. Without his memory, Hemingway could no longer
write, could no longer recall the facts and images he required
to create his art.
-Hemingway spent the first half of 1961 fighting his depression
and paranoia. On the morning of July 2, 1961 Hemingway
shot himself in the head. It was little more than two weeks
until his 62nd birthday.
F. Scott
Fitzgerald
 Born September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
 Published This Side of Paradise on March 26, 1920, at 24 and became
affluent almost overnight. A week later he married Zelda Sayre in New York.
 Coined the term the Jazz Age
 “It was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess,
and it was an age of satire.”
 In 1924-1926, Paris: Fitzgerald met Ernest Hemingway, then unknown
outside the expatriate literary circle.
 After his death in 1940 and between 1945 and 1950, his work gained respect
and by 1960 he had achieved a secure place among America’s enduring
writers.
 The Great Gatsby examines the theme of aspiration in an American setting,
defining the classic American novel.
Well-Known
Works
Novels
This Side of Paradise (1920)
The Beautiful and Damned (1922)
The Great Gatsby (1925)
Tender Is the Night (1934)
Short Story
Flappers and Philosophers (A Collection, 1920)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (1921)
Tales of the Jazz Age (A Collection, 1922)
All the SadYoung Men (A Collection, 1926)
-As a social historian, Fitzgerald
became identified with the Jazz
Age, a term he coined in “Echoes
of the Jazz Age.”
-Literary critics were reluctant to recognize
Fitzgerald as a serious craftsman. His
reputation as a drinker inspired the myth that
he was an irresponsible writer; yet he was a
painstaking reviser whose fiction went through
layers of drafts.
-Fitzgerald’s clear, lyrical, colorful, witty style
evoked the emotions associated with time and
place. When critics objected to Fitzgerald’s
concern with love and success, his response
was: “But, my God! it was my material, and it
was all I had to deal with.”
-The chief theme of Fitzgerald’s work is
aspiration - the idealism he regarded as
defining American character. Another major
theme was mutability or loss.
Stein
Joyce
Stream of Consciousness Writers…
Gertrude Stein
James Joyce
 In 1903, Stein moved to Paris with her
brother Leo and her partner Alice B. Toklas
and stayed for 30 years
 27 rue de Fleurus, soon became gathering
spot for many young artists and writers
including Henri Matisse, Ezra Pound,
Pablo Picasso, Max Jacob, and Guillaume
Apollinaire.
 Was a passionate advocate for the "new"
in art, her literary friendships grew to
include writers as diverse as William
Carlos Williams, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James
Joyce, and Ernest Hemingway.
 It was to Hemingway that Stein coined the
phrase "the lost generation" to describe
the expatriate writers living abroad
between the wars.
 Joyce headed to Paris in 1920 at
an invitation from Ezra Pound,
supposedly for a week, but he
ended up living there for the next
twenty years.
 considered to be one of the most
influential writers in the modernist
avant-garde of the early 20th
century.
 best known for Ulysses (1922) - a
landmark work in which the
episodes of Homer’s Odyssey are
paralleled in an array of
contrasting literary styles - and the
stream of consciousness
technique he perfected.
John Dos Passos
•Born January 14, 1869, in Chicago,
Illinois
•American novelist and painter
•wrote forty-two novels, as well as
poems, essays, and plays, and created
more than 400 pieces of art.
•active in the campaign against the
growth of fascism in Europe. And joined
other literary figures such as Ernest
Hemingway in supporting the
Republicans during the Spanish Civil
War.
• In a 1936 essay, Joe Sartre referred to
Dos Passos as "the greatest writer of our
time.”
• Passos died on September 28, 1970.
E.E.Cummings
•Born on October 14, 1894 in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• American poet, painter, essayist,
author, and playwright.
•Wrote 3,000 poems, 2
autobiographical novels, 4 plays
and several essays.
•Manipulates syntax and
punctuation for stylistic purposes
•His poetry often deals with themes
of love and nature, as well as the
relationship of the individual to the
masses and to the world
•Born on October 30, 1885
•American poet, critic, and intellectual
•Major figure of the Modernist and Imagist
movements in the first half of the 20th century.
•Was in Paris from 1921 and became well-known for
his advancement of writers such as Robert Frost,
William Carlos Williams, Ernest Hemingway and
James Joyce.
•During World War II, Pound made a series of openly
fascist radio broadcasts and in 1945 was arrested by
the U.S. forces. He was put in a six foot by six foot
"gorilla cage.”
•Labelled as paranoid by the examining psychiatrists
in a trial, Pound spent 12 years in Washington, D.C.,
in a hospital for the criminally insane.
•It has been suggested that Pound was feigning
insanity to escape the death penalty, but the treason
indictment did not drastically affect his ability to write
and translate poetry. Pound died on November 1,
1972, in Venice.
Ezra Pound
IMPACT
As American customs became more defined,
European and other countries recognized
America as a distinctive culture and nation.
Beyond this, the works of the Lost Generation
give insight into American life during the
1920s. They unmask the general depression
behind the forced exuberance of the Jazz
Age.