The Lost Generation

what is the lost generation?

• a group of U.S. writers who came of age during the war and established their literary reputations in the 1920s
• The generation was “lost” in the sense that its inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and because of its spiritual alienation
• Pres. Warren G. Harding’s “back to normalcy” policy

What is the Lost Generation?

• Hopelessly provincial, materialistic, and emotionally barren
• The term embraces Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, E.E. Cummings, Archibald MacLeish, Hart Crane, and many other writers who made Paris the centre of their literary activities in the ’20s

Origin

• Gertrude Stein used the phrase in conversation with Ernest Hemingway, supposedly quoting a garage mechanic saying to her, "You are all a lost generation."
• Signifies a disillusioned postwar generation characterized by lost values, lost belief in the idea of human progress leading to hedonism.