The Lost Generation
Jill Tripodi and Jackie Gross
The authors
of “The Lost Generation” lived in a time that raised many questions. Some of
these questions being the same questions that today’s generation of students are
asking. “With all that goes on in the world, with all the hate, destruction, and
dying, how can I believe that there exists a God that lets this happen?” Beliefs
and traditions are constantly in question; leaving those who ask lost in their
pursuit of the answers. Questions, though dark and deep, inspired some extremely
interesting and beautiful literature that deserves to be studied.
the phrase
"Lost Generation" to referred to American youth who came to adulthood during
World War I, Their experience in the war alienated them from their parents'
values and left them directionless. The war caused these young people to become
cynical and to search for values to replace the ones they had been taught. In
their "search for values" they lived recklessly - drinking, fast driving,
jumping in and out of relationships, listening to jazz.
What is it?
The Lost Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who were rebelling against what America had become by the 1900’s. At this point in time, America had become a great place to, “go into some area of business” (Crunden, 185). However, the Lost Generation writers felt that America was not such a success story because the country was devoid of a cosmopolitan culture. Their solution to this issue was to pack up their bags and travel to Europe’s cosmopolitan cultures, such as Paris and London. Here they expected to find literary freedom and a cosmopolitan way of life.
A cosmopolitan culture is one which includes and values a variety of backgrounds
and cultures. In the 1920's the White Anglo Saxon Protestant work ethic
was the only culture that was considered valued by the majority of Americans. It
was because of ethics such as this which made the cosmopolitan culture of Paris
so alluring.
American Literature went through a profound change in the post WWI era. Up until this point, American writers were still expected to use the rigid Victorian styles of the 19th Century. The lost generation writers were above, or apart from, American society, not only in geographic terms, but also in their style of writing and subjects they chose to write about. Although they were unhappy with American culture, the writers were instrumental in changing their country's style of writing, from Victorian to modern.
When did it occur?
The term "lost generation" was coined by Gertrude Stein, a lost generation
writer herself, after World War I. It was between the first and second World
Wars, that these writers spent their time abroad. "In the 1930's, the forces of
politics and war drove artists back to America."
Why was it significant to American Culture?
This temporary emigration of American talent into cosmopolitan cities such as
Paris, is significant to American culture in two parts.
One, because it aided in the desire for a cosmopolitan culture to be established
and to exist in America.
Two, because when American Culture became more defined, European and other
countries began to recognize a distinctive Democratic American culture.
Who was involved in it?
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was born into an affluent family, which enabled her to spend a
considerable amount of time in Europe. Having such a diverse background, Stein
did not know the conventional life that many Americans lived. Her areas of study
include Radcliffe College, where she studied with the philosopher William James.
To further her education, Stein attended Johns Hopkins Medical School, but she
did not have the drive to finish her degree. Stein used her knowledge of
medicine and philosophy (particularly
what she learned from James about stream of consciousness) and incorporated them
into her writings. Stein then went off to Europe, and with her brother Leo, set
up a salon which was visited by such figures as Picasso, Henri Matisse, Sherwood
Anderson, and Ernest Hemingway. With influences such as Picasso, Stein explored
Cubism, with concentration on illumination of the present moment. A good example
of this was the work "Tender Buttons."
Stein's first and most celebrated work was "Three Lives"- where she tried to
establish new verb forms, and a way to enable the reader's consciousness to be
able to study the workings of another mind. Dialogue was a main focus, because
dialogue allowed the reader to understand the perceptions of the characters,
while allowing the reader to understand the perceptions of the self. Freud was
also an influence, as seen in Stein's attempt to get into ones conscious and
unconscious mind while merging the two together.
From "The Gentle Lena"
Poor Lena had no power to be strong in such trouble. She did not know how to
yield her sickness nor endure. She lost all her little sense of being in her
suffering. She was so scared, and then at her best, Lena, who was patient,
sweet, and quiet, had not self-control, nor any active courage.
Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway is probably one of the most celebrated authors of his time. Hemingway
is well known for his fiction. His take on fiction is something invented or
imagined. Main topics were centralized around his love of embellishment of the
facts. Hemingway did not have the education as many other writers of his time,
rebelling against his parents attempts to send him
to colleges. His idea of education did not consist of lectures, and research
papers, but of life experiences, and his love of reading. Hemingway's readings
centered around Russian writers such as Tolstoy and Turgrnev, Tolstoy was a
primary influence in Hemingway's writings. WWI also had a profound impact on him
as well, as he was an ambulance driver during the
war. He hated the abstract, especially abstract words such as honor, glory, and
courage. Hemingway held strong to old beliefs,
and symbolism, as he used symbolism to depict the Protestant religion he could
not accept. He used observation and description
in his works, rather than rhetoric views. The concept of war fascinated
Hemingway, as well as the experiences one
could endure in a lifetime. One of the most famous works, "Farewell to Arms"
depicted the uselessness for words such as
honor and glory, because they were not the first things in a soldier's mind as
he walked onto the battlefield. Hemingway's works
were raw, and dilled with the notion that one could be inside the characters
mind, the concrete, and not around in the abstract
view of his works.
From "Big Two Hearted River Part I"
From the time he had gotten down off the train and the baggage man had thrown
his pack out of the open car door things had been different. Seney was burned,
he knew that. He hiked along the road, sweating in the sun, climbing to cross
the range of hills that separated the railway from the pure plains.
T.S.Eliot
T.S. Eliot was born into a prominent New England family. His education consisted
of Harvard University, the Sorbonne, and the University of Oxford. Eliot was a
disciple of the author/editor Ezra Pound who will be discussed later. His
permanent residence became London, because Eliot found London more appealing due
to its cultural tradition. Eliot's studies and
interests stemmed from anthropology, mythology, and religion. His works ranged
from subjects such as religion, serenity, the
Italian poet Dante, English metaphysical poets, and Elizabethan dramatists. His
poetry has no fixed verse, form, or regular pattern, with an occasional rhyme
scheme. Eliot's most celebrated work "The Wasteland" is a long poem, which
construes his views of the modern
society, in comparison of the past. Eliot gave Ezra Pound the poem to edit, and
pound and his wife cut through the poem,
often emitting large portions that they felt irrelevant. In "The Wasteland"
Eliot incorporates many footnotes. Some
critics claimed it was Eliot's egocentrism that allowed him to do this, because
he felt smarter than the average person
did, and they would need the footnote to decode his writings. Others said he was
crazy (he did suffer a nervous breakdown while writing "The Wasteland." Eliot
was an essential figure in the modernistic times, and his methods of
literary analysis, such as he develops in
the work "Sacred Wood" influenced literary criticism for future writers.
From "The Hollow Men"
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rat's feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound was born in Idaho, and at an early age moved to Pennsylvania with his
family. His education consisted of Hamilton College, and the University of
Pennsylvania where he meets literary figures such as William Carlos Williams,
and Hilda Doolittle. Hilda Doolittle, Pound, and Richard Aldington published an
anthology based on their famous teashop conversations called "Des Imgistes: An
Anthology." Pound had this published to help further his friend's careers. He
entitled the book in French because he felt that they owed a debt to French
literature. Pound was an instructor in Romance Languages at Wabash College.
Pound's friendship with various authors and poets helped establish the birth of
modernism with regards to French, English, and American literature. Pound later
moved to Europe, as he found nothing of interest in
America. It was in Europe that Pound met T.S. Eliot. His course of readings in
Europe had a profound effect on his writings. In addition to the Romance
Languages, Pound studied Chinese. Pound felt a greater admiration to French and
Chinese past histories than he did for American and British. Ezra Pound had a
penetrating impact on literature. Not only did he write his own highly acclaimed
works; he helped others to achieve the same recognition.
From "Portrait d'unne Femme"
Your mind and you are our Sargasso Sea
London has swept about you this score years
And bright ships left you this or that in fee
Ideas, old gossip, oddments of all things
Strange spars of knowledge and dimmed waves of price
Great minds have sought you-lacking someone else.
The information above
is a revisions of information originally posted at
http://users.rowan.edu/~lindman/lost_generation.html