The+Lost+Generation

= The Lost Generation =

 The Lost Generation is a term, reportedly coined by American author Gertrude Stein, used to refer to the generation of people who "came of age" during World War I. The generation was considered "lost," because after WWI, they seemed to have no real purpose in life or direction in which to go, as the war had come to shape and define their whole existence. The Lost Generation, despite technically referring to a whole generation of people, has come to specifically define a group of authors and artists as a blanket term. The phrase was popularized by American author Ernest Hemingway in one of the epigraphs of his novel, //The Sun also Rises//, and Hemingway's memoir //A Moveable Feast// tells the story of how the term came to be.

 Authors from the Lost Generation (including such notable figures as F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, etc.), tended to include their experiences from the war in their writing, and hence their work has some common themes. Usually featuring some kind of autobiographical account of World War I, the main characters featured within the novels written by these authors were often drawn from the authors themselves, and were meant to represent the way that specific author was involved in and revolved around the war. Some themes commonly represented within this genre of literature include condemning overly frivolous and lavish lifestyles, as well as the death/corruption of the American Dream. Having been through the horrors of the largest war in human history, they couldn't think of America as a shining beacon of hope anymore, and therefore sought to tear away the disillusionment of the general public regarding this subject.

 The Lost Generation writers and composers (including George Gershwin and Aaron Copland) had a major impact on art and literature. Their time in the war brought about some of the most famous and well-loved works of all time; works that changed the way people viewed not only America, but also themselves in the context of the rest of the world. Books like //The Great Gatsby, The Sound and the Fury, Dubliners,// and //The Grapes of Wrath// came out of this time. and these stories completely revolutionized the purpose of and content within the literary world in the twentieth century. In terms of the area we will be visiting, many of the members of the Lost Generation were expatriates, and ended up moving to Paris together. This shared time was the cause of many of the aforementioned literary works, and is a major influence in the lives of the authors who resided there. Ultimately, the Lost Generation and its impacts are in reality far from lost; they shape the world we live in every day, and their work speaks volumes to readers after all this time.