Each time the beginning of a century brings us a special culture of the “lost generation”. We used to read their books, listen to their music, now we also watch their films and TV series - as well as films and TV series about them.
2014 is a special year. The whole world remembers one of the terrible pages in the history of not only Europe, but also of humanity - the beginning of the First World War. A hundred years ago, the Old World, together with Russia, entered an era of endless territorial disputes and geopolitical intrigues that covered up the enormously growing human greed. Of course, in the language of economists this should be called the natural development of the capitalist structure, but the fact remains: due to political and mercantile ambitions powerful of the world This caused millions of innocent victims to suffer.
In fact, the year 1914 continues to this day, because humanity has already survived two terrible World Wars, and today, according to experts, it is on the threshold of a new one. One way or another, a hundred years ago, the First World War brought people not only grief, death and suffering, but, no matter how paradoxical it may sound, it gave civilization such a phenomenon as the literature of the “lost generation.”
In any history or literature textbook we will find a textbook description of this direction of human thought. Lost Generation(fr. Generation perdue, English Lost Generation) is a concept that arose in the period between two wars (World War I and World War II). It became the leitmotif of the works of such writers as Ernest Hemingway, Erich Maria Remarque, Henri Barbusse, Richard Aldington, Ezra Pound, John Dos Passos, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Sherwood Anderson, Thomas Wolfe, Nathaniel West, John O'Hara. The Lost Generation is young people drafted to the front at the age of 18, often not yet finished school, who began to kill early. After the war, such people often could not adapt to. peaceful life, drank too much, committed suicide, some went crazy.
The figurative expression “writers of the lost generation” came into use thanks to Gertrude Stein, who so called the Parisian bohemia of the first quarter of the last century, which included those now classics of world literature. This term was popularized by the brightest representative of the “lost generation” - the great Ernest Hemingway in his autobiographical novel“A holiday that is always with you. The expression quickly spread in the West, and the Lost Generation began to refer to young front-line soldiers who fought between 1914 and 1918 and returned home morally or physically crippled. They are also called “unaccounted casualties of war.” Returning from the front, these people could not live again normal life. After experiencing the horrors of war, everything else seemed petty and unworthy of attention to them. After some time, Remarque, in his novel “Three Comrades,” gave an exhaustive description of the representatives of the “lost generation” themselves. These people are tough, decisive, accept only concrete help, and are ironic with women. Their sensuality comes before their feelings.
A hundred years have passed since then, more than one generation has changed, but in 2014 the term “ lost generation"again attracted attention. The expression has again become actively used in relation to those who are about 30 years old today: in America it is yuppies, in Europe it is Generation Y, and in Russia it is the NEXT generation. Children born in the 80s, who grew up in the revolutionary 90s, entered the “zero” in such a way that they can easily be combined with the front-line soldiers of the First World War - these are people without a sense of purpose. later life, without a purpose for existence, people doomed to nothing. On the one hand, children of the turn of the century are the most advanced generation in the entire history of mankind. They grew up in conditions of incredible computer advances, as they say - in the age of high technology, when information rules the world. But, on the other hand, this generation had the happiest childhood, because it did not know military conflicts, did not know the horrors of hunger and deprivation, it is a product of greenhouse conditions. This is the most apathetic generation, which is not interested in anything except consumerism and “cute things” on Youtube, their accounts in social networks and cool selfies. The Youtube generation represents an exclusively positive mindset without any inclination towards non-conformism. Because he doesn’t need it in principle.
For several years now, at the instigation of sociologists and other representatives of the concerned public, journalists and psychologists have been studying the most problem-free generation in history. Experienced people, adults are sure: each next generation is more stupid and immoral than the previous one. Old people are especially ashamed of the last generation, the so-called children of the Internet, mobile phones and cloudless air conditioning overhead. Fashion magazines, which flourished precisely during the formation of the new lost generation, formulated 10 main characteristics of modern youth. First, the authoritative publication Time published an article about the “YAYA” generation (English - MeMeMe). As befits a self-respecting publication, it did not discover anything new, it only brought together the existing facts.
There has been a lot of talk for a long time about the fact that people who are very different from their mothers, fathers, and grandparents are beginning to inhabit the planet. But now the time has come when we can draw the first conclusions. The “YAYA” generation (also called millennials) includes citizens born between 1980 and 2000, that is, the older ones have already reached the age of Christ, and the younger ones have entered the turbulent time of adolescence. In Russia, “millennials” are younger: the upheavals of the late 80s and early 90s made their own adjustments to the upbringing of children born then, so many sociologists believe that our “millennials” begin around 1989. One way or another, MAXIM magazine, read by “millennials,” has identified the very 10 main features of the “YAYA” generation.
- This is the first non-rebellious generation in recorded history.
- They are friends with their parents
- They are non-aggressive and cautious
- They are accustomed to approval and are absolutely confident in their own worth and importance, regardless of what they do or what they achieve.
- They want to live in a zone of absolute comfort and do not tolerate serious inconveniences.
- They actively dislike responsibility
- They're obsessed with fame
- They are uncreative and unerudite, prefer to use ready-made schemes and do not strive to invent something new
- They don't like to make decisions
- They are sweet, positive and problem-free
You can agree or disagree with such conclusions, but that’s why cinema exists, to reflect on what worries modern society. Hollywood decided to paint the image of the “Prozac generation” itself. As a result, TV channels were filled with series in which “millennials” appeared without cuts.
American Horror Story
It would seem that the most non-youth series of the modern horror genre has caused an unprecedented surge in popularity among the audience of 12-35 years old. Season three " American history horror" - "Sabbath" - became a categorical verdict on the generation of the 90s. Showing three main types modern girls, the authors of the series harshly drew public attention to those who will replace the current 50-year-olds. In the mouth of one of the young witches, the scriptwriters put the quintessence of the entire image of the “YAYA” generation:
“I am a member of Generation Y, born between the advent of AIDS and 9/11. We are called Generation NEXT. We are characterized by self-importance and narcissism. Perhaps because we are the first generation where every child receives awards simply for participating. Or perhaps because social networks allow us to display our every fart or sandwich for everyone to see. But perhaps our main feature is indifference, indifference to suffering. Personally, I did everything not to feel: sex, drugs, booze - just to get rid of the pain, not to think about my mother, about my freak of a father, about all those boys who didn’t love me back. And, in general, I was raped, and two days later I, as if nothing had happened, came to class. Most people wouldn't be able to survive this. And I was like: the show must go on! I would give everything I have or will have to feel pain and suffer again.”
"Gossip Girl"
If in the 90s the main television Bible for everyone who was born in the 70s became two cult series, now considered television classics - “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place”, then the “millennial” generation grew up on the now cult "Gossip Girl." The American television teen drama, based on the popular series of novels of the same name by writer Cecily von Ziegesar, showed the underbelly of the world of “golden youth” over six seasons. The plot develops around the lives of young people living in an elite area of New York and attending a privileged school. In addition to studying, they are friends, quarrel, take drugs, are jealous, suffer, love, hate and everything else that is inherent in the heroes of teenage dramas. Viewers and the characters themselves learn about all this every day from the popular blog of the mysterious “Gossip Girl,” voiced by Kristen Bell. None of the characters know who is hiding under this nickname, and the actress herself appears in the frame only in the finale. In fact, we have witnessed an opinion from the relatively lost generation of the 2000s.
How to Make It in America
Whether you're rich or poor, whether you live in Upper Manhattan or the Bronx, no one has canceled the concept of the "American Dream" or its more international meaning. catchphrase- “from rags to riches.” The dramedy How to Succeed in America from executive producer Mark Wahlberg, who gave the yuppie generation the glamorous series Entourage, lasted 2 seasons on the HBO television network. "How to Make It in America" is a series about two young businessmen, Cam and Ben, striving for the American dream. They understand fashionable clothes, go to stylish parties, but have not yet found themselves in life. They make a living by illegally reselling all sorts of stylish, exclusive clothes, which is how they make a living. As a result, their main dream - to create their own brand of clothing in a casual style - comes across the treachery of large showrooms and sales companies, and the guys, disappointed in everything, and, above all, in themselves, give up on own idea. The inability to fight for a place in the sun is one of the main features of the “YAYA” generation.
"Girls"
After the promising series How to Succeed in America suffered a ratings fiasco, HBO launched new project from Judd Apatow himself - “Girls”. Another dramedy about four girlfriends stuck in adolescence around the age of 25 in New York, was created by the most talented student of the famous comedian - Lena Dunham. The actress never hid that she made the series about herself, about her peers who cannot achieve anything in life. As children, they watched “Sex in big city“, but in practice everything turned out differently from the life of the iconic Carrie Bradshaw and her motley girlfriends. The series “Girls” just aired its full third season, HBO successfully renewed it for a fourth, and all television critics and viewers recognized the third season as the best. Lena Dunham finished everyone off with her own conclusion about generation Y - nothing will help them! According to the apt statement of film journalists, the silent question “What the fuck am I doing?” flashes in the eyes of the characters every now and then. - its experience and comprehension in one context or another is the content of “Girls”, it becomes the experience that the heroines gain. But the process of accumulating this experience in Manhattan has been somewhat delayed, and soon 25-year-old girls will turn into 40-year-old losers. But this is the plot of a completely different television series.
"Looking"
New to this television season is another HBO drama on the currently fashionable topic - how difficult it is for gays to live: “Looking.” The first season of the new series died down, and to the delight of the corresponding audience, the show was renewed for a second season. This is the story of three gay friends, one of whom is an artist, the second is a waiter in a restaurant, and the third is a developer. computer games. Happens to friends during the show incredible stories, and the main setting was the famous gay Mission district in San Francisco, where these trio live, looking for their happiness and love, and some just for sexual adventures in the asphalt jungle. With the naked eye, it is noticeable that “Looking” is another variation of “Sex and the City,” which has already been cloned, taking into account LGBT themes, into two iconic series of the early 2000s - “Close Friends” and “Sex in Another City.” Russian film critics were unanimous in their opinion regarding the new product on American television. Nevertheless, after the series “Looking,” the gay topic on television will no longer be the same - before our eyes it ceases to be a rattle for fighters for minority rights, a bogeyman for alarmed guards and a trump card for demagogues in expensive suits. She becomes natural - what more do you need? The gay theme has long become a must have for all foreign television series - from sitcoms to creepy dramas, but in the case of “Looking” Generation NEXT it is shown in the most terrible despair - the heroes are under 30, but there is still no happiness, complete misunderstanding all fronts!
"New Girl"
At the end of the last century, television series were different. Those who today approached the Rubicon at the age of 30, without exaggeration, grew up on the greatest sitcom of all time - “Friends”. 10 years after their finale, the creators of Friends gave Generation Y the sitcom New Girl. The characters are new, the setting is not a high-rise building in New York in Manhattan, but a loft somewhere in Los Angeles, but the principle of action is still the same. Four subjects - three guys and one girl - rent one apartment, one of them seems to be a successful manager, but the other three are complete losers and beggars. The plot of “New Girl” is externally built on the love experiences of all the characters, each of whom, as a result, will end up with the right character, but the subtext of the series is frighteningly relevant: these 30-year-old heroes who, by and large, have nothing in life they never achieved it, they live one day at a time and do not strive for anything, or are afraid to strive for something, because the society of the turn of the century raised them to be too weak-willed. But let’s not talk about sad things: the series “New Girl” was renewed for a fourth season, which means there is hope that the heroes will come to their senses.
And World War II). It became the leitmotif of the works of such writers as Ernest Hemingway, Erich Maria Remarque, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Henri Barbusse, Richard Aldington, Ezra Pound, John Dos Passos, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Sherwood Anderson , Thomas Wolfe, Nathaniel West, John O'Hara The lost generation are young people called to the front at the age of 18, often not yet finishing school, who began to kill early after the war, such people often could not adapt to peaceful life, became drunkards, committed suicide, and some went crazy.
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Lost generation - Finding yourself.
Problems of education: How to find the “lost” generation
Lecture “Lost Generation” and literature
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History of the term
When we returned from Canada and settled on the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, and Miss Stein and I were still good friends, she uttered her phrase about the lost generation. The old Model T Ford that Miss Stein was driving in those years had something wrong with the ignition, and a young mechanic who had been at the front last year war and now worked in a garage, failed to fix it, or maybe he just didn’t want to fix her Ford out of turn. Be that as it may, he was not sérieux enough, and after Miss Stein's complaint, the owner severely reprimanded him. The owner told him: “You are all génération perdue!” - That's who you are! And all of you are like that! - said Miss Stein. - All young people who were in the war. You are a lost generation.
This is what they call in the West young front-line soldiers who fought between 1914 and 1918, regardless of the country for which they fought, and returned home morally or physically crippled. They are also called “unaccounted casualties of war.” After returning from the front, these people could not live a normal life again. After experiencing the horrors of war, everything else seemed petty and unworthy of attention to them.
In 1930-31, Remarque wrote the novel “The Return” (“Der Weg zurück”), in which he talks about the return to their homeland after the First World War of young soldiers who can no longer live normally, and, acutely feeling all the meaninglessness, cruelty, filth of life, Still trying to live somehow. The epigraph to the novel is the following lines:
Soldiers returned to their homeland
They want to find a way to a new life.
In the novel “Three Comrades” he predicts a sad fate for the lost generation. Remarque describes the situation in which these people found themselves. When they returned, many of them found craters instead of their previous homes; most lost their relatives and friends. In post-war Germany there is devastation, poverty, unemployment, instability, and a nervous atmosphere.
Remarque also characterizes the representatives of the “lost generation” themselves. These people are tough, decisive, accept only concrete help, and are ironic with women. Their sensuality comes before their feelings.
The 20th century truly began in 1914, when one of the most terrible and bloody conflicts in human history broke out. The First World War forever changed the course of time: four empires ceased to exist, territories and colonies were divided, new states emerged, and huge reparations and indemnities were demanded from the losing countries. Many nations felt humiliated and trampled into the dirt. All this served as prerequisites for the policy of revanchism, which led to the outbreak new war, even more bloody and terrible.
But let’s return to the First World War: according to official data, human losses in killed alone amounted to about 10 million, not to mention the wounded, missing and homeless. The front-line soldiers who survived this hell returned home (sometimes to a completely different state) with a whole range of physical and psychological injuries. And mental wounds were often worse than physical wounds. These people, most of whom were not even thirty years old, could not adapt to peaceful life: many of them became drunkards, some went crazy, and some even committed suicide. They were dryly called “unaccounted victims of war.”
In European and American literature In the 1920s and 30s, the tragedy of the “lost generation” - young people who passed through the trenches of Verdun and the Somme - became one of the central themes in the work of a number of authors (especially worth noting is 1929, when books by front-line writers Erich Maria Remarque, Ernest Hemingway and Richard Aldington).
We have chosen the most famous novels about the First World War.
Erich Maria Remarque
Remarque's famous novel, which has become one of the most popular works German literature XX century. "On Western Front Without Change" sold millions of copies all over the world, and the writer himself was even nominated for a Nobel Prize for it.
This is a story about boys whose lives were broken (or rather, swept away) by the war. Just yesterday they were simple schoolchildren, today they are doomed to death soldiers of the Kaiser's Germany, who were thrown into the meat grinder of total war: dirty trenches, rats, lice, hours of artillery shelling, gas attacks, wounds, death, death and death again... They are killed and maimed, they themselves have to kill. They live in hell, and reports from the front lines dryly say again and again: “No change on the Western Front.”
We distinguish distorted faces, flat helmets. These are the French. They reached the remains of the wire fences and had already suffered noticeable losses. One of their chains is mowed down by a machine gun standing next to us; then it begins to exhibit delays when loading, and the French come closer. I see one of them fall into the slingshot with his face held high. The torso sinks down, the arms take a position as if he were about to pray. Then the body falls off completely, and only the arms, torn off at the elbows, hang on the wire.
Ernest Hemingway
"Farewell to arms!" - a cult novel that made Hemingway famous and brought him substantial fees. In 1918 future author“The Old Man and the Sea” enlisted in the ranks of Red Cross volunteers. He served in Italy, where he was seriously wounded during a mortar attack on the front lines. In a Milan hospital, he met his first love, Agnes von Kurowski. The story of their acquaintance formed the basis of the book.
The plot, as is often the case with old Khem, is quite simple: a soldier who falls in love with a nurse decides to desert the army at all costs and move with his beloved away from this massacre. But you can run away from war, but from death?..
He lay with his feet facing me, and in short flashes of light I could see that both of his legs were crushed above the knees. One was completely torn off, and the other hung on the sinew and rags of his trouser leg, and the stump writhed and twitched as if by itself. He bit his hand and moaned: “Oh mamma mia, mamma mia!”
Death of a hero. Richard Aldington
“The Death of a Hero” is a manifesto of the “lost generation”, permeated with severe bitterness and hopelessness, standing on a par with “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “A Farewell to Arms!” This is history young artist, who fled to the trench hell of the First World War from the indifference and misunderstanding of his parents and beloved women. In addition to front-line horrors, the book also describes English post- victorian era, whose patriotic pathos and hypocrisy contributed to the outbreak of one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history.
In Aldington's own words: "This book is a lament, a monument, perhaps inartfully, to a generation that hoped fervently, fought honorably, and suffered deeply."
He lived among mangled corpses, among remains and ashes, in some kind of hellish cemetery. Absentmindedly picking at the wall of the trench with a stick, he touched the ribs of a human skeleton. He ordered a new pit to be dug behind the trench for a latrine - and three times he had to quit work, because every time under the shovels there was a terrible black mess of decomposing corpses.
Fire. Henri Barbusse
“Fire (Diary of a Platoon)” was perhaps the first novel dedicated to the tragedy of the First World War. French writer Henri Barbusse enlisted as volunteers immediately after the conflict began. He served on the front line, taking part in fierce battles with the German army on the Western Front. In 1915, the prose writer was wounded and hospitalized, where he began work on a novel based on real events (as evidenced by published diary entries and letters to his wife). “Fire” was published as a separate edition in 1916, at which time the writer was awarded the Goncourt Prize for it.
Barbusse's book is extremely naturalistic. Perhaps it can be called the most cruel work included in this collection. In it, the author described in detail (and very atmospheric!) everything that he had to go through in the war: from tedious trench everyday life in mud and sewage, under the whistling of bullets and shells, to suicidal bayonet attacks, terrible injuries and death of colleagues.
Through the gap in the embankment the bottom is visible; there, on their knees, as if begging for something, are the corpses of soldiers of the Prussian Guard; they have bloody holes punched in their backs. From the pile of these corpses they pulled the body of a huge Senegalese rifleman to the edge; he is petrified in the position in which death overtook him, he is crouched, wants to lean on the void, cling to it with his feet, and looks intently at his hands, which were probably cut off by the exploding grenade he was holding; his whole face is moving, swarming with worms, as if he is chewing them.
Three soldiers. John Dos Passos
Like Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos served as a volunteer in a medical unit stationed in Italy during World War I. Three Soldiers was published shortly after the end of the conflict - in 1921 - and became one of the first works about the Lost Generation. Unlike other books included in this collection, in this novel what comes first is not the description of military operations and front-line everyday life, but the story of how the ruthless war machine destroys a person's individuality.
Damn this damn infantry! I'm ready to do anything to get out of it. What is this life for a person when they treat him as a black man.
- Yes, this is not life for a person...
After the First World War they returned to their hometowns from the front special people. When the war began, they were still boys, but duty forced them to defend their homeland. “The Lost Generation” - that’s what they were called. What, however, is the reason for this loss? This concept is still used today when we talk about writers who worked during the break between the First and Second World Wars, which became a test for all of humanity and knocked almost everyone out of their usual, peaceful rut.
The expression “lost generation” was once heard from the mouth. Later, the incident during which this happened was described in one of Hemingway’s books (“The Holiday That Always Be With You”). He and other writers of the lost generation raise in their works the problem of young people who returned from the war and did not find their home, their relatives. Questions about how to live on, how to remain human, how to learn to enjoy life again - this is what is paramount in this literary movement. Let's talk about it in more detail.
Literature about the Lost Generation is not only about similar themes. This is also recognizable style. At first glance, this is an impartial account of what is happening - be it war or post-war time. However, if you read carefully, you can see both a very deep lyrical subtext and the severity of mental tossing. For many authors it turned out to be difficult to break out of these thematic frameworks: it is too difficult to forget the horrors of war.
First World War left an indelible mark on the destinies of many generations, changed the moral foundation of many countries and nationalities, but did not bypass those lands that were far from the focus of hostilities. The war that broke out overseas shocked the younger generation of Americans with thousands of deaths and horrific destruction, striking with its senselessness and barbaric weapons that were used against all living things. Post-war country, which they previously considered their home, a reliable bastion built on a sense of patriotism and faith, collapsed like a house of cards. Only a handful of young people remained, so useless and scattered, living aimlessly through the days allotted to them.
Such sentiments pervaded many cultural aspects of life in the 1920s, including literature. Many writers have realized that the old norms are no longer relevant, and the old criteria for writing have become completely obsolete. They criticized the country and the government, having lost hope in the war among other values, and ended up feeling lost themselves. Finding meaning in anything has become an insoluble problem for them.
The term lost generation
The concept of “lost generation” belongs to the author of Gertrude Stein, a representative of American modernism who lived in Paris. It is believed that a certain auto mechanic was extremely dissatisfied with his young assistant, who was repairing Gertrude Stein's car. At the moment of rebuke, he said the following: “You are all a lost generation,” thereby explaining the inability of his assistant to do his job well.
Ernest Hemingway, a close friend of Gertrude Stein, adopted this expression, including it in the epigraph of his novel "". In fact, the term lost generation refers to those young people who grew up during the era, and subsequently became disillusioned with such an alien post-war world.
In literature, the Lost Generation is considered to be a group American writers, most of whom emigrated to Europe and worked there between the end of the First World War and. As a result, America raised a generation of cynical people who could hardly imagine their future in this country. But what finally prompted them to move overseas? The answer is quite simple: many of these writers realized that their home and life were unlikely to be restored, and the United States they had known had disappeared without a trace.
The bohemian lifestyle among intellectuals turned out to be much closer and more pleasant than a miserable existence in a society devoid of faith, and the presence of morality was in great doubt. Thus, emigrant writers living in Europe wrote about the trials and tribulations of this most lost generation, being, most interestingly, an integral part of this generation.
Prominent figures of the Lost Generation
Among the most famous representatives of the lost generation, it is worth noting such as Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein and. The entire list is not limited to these names; one can also mention Sherwood Anderson and others who belong to the lost generation, but to a lesser extent than their comrades. To get a more detailed understanding of this phenomenon, let's take a closer look at some of these writers.
Gertrude Stein born and raised in the United States, but moved to Paris in 1903. She was
a great connoisseur and lover of painting and literature, she was considered by many (including herself) to be a real expert in this art. She began holding meetings in her home in Paris, mentoring young writers and critiquing their work. Contrary to her established authority among modernist figures, she was not one of the most influential writers of that time. At the same time, many writers considered it a great success to become part of her club.
Ernest Hemingway served as an ambulance driver on the Italian front during the First World War, where he was wounded. He married and moved to Paris, where he soon became part of the expatriate community. He is best known for his in an unusual way letters, being the first to depart from the standard norms of storytelling. Sparing with eloquence but skilled in the use of dialogue, Hemingway made a conscious choice to abandon the colorful speech patterns that had dominated the literature before him. Of course, his mentor was Gertrude Stein.
Scott Fitzgerald was a junior lieutenant; but no matter how strange it may sound, he never served
in a foreign land. Instead, he married a rich girl from Alabama whom he met during his service. Fitzgerald, as a writer, was struck by the post-war culture of America, eventually becoming the basis of his work, which so attracted the new young generation. Having achieved fame, he constantly travels between Europe and America and becomes an important component of the literary community led by Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway. In many ways, Fitzgerald repeated the fate of the people described in his works: his life was filled with money, partying, aimlessness and alcohol, which destroyed the great writer. Hemingway, in his memoirs “A Feast That Always Be With You,” speaks with incredible warmth about Fitzgerald’s works, although it is known that at a certain period their friendship acquired a tinge of hostility.
Against the background of the above figures, the figure stands out somewhat Erich Maria 
Remarque. His story is different in that, being a German, he suffered greatly from the consequences of the First World War, personally experiencing the burden and meaninglessness of the horrific events of those times. Remarque's military experience is incomparable to any of the writers already mentioned, and his novels remain forever the best illustration of anti-fascist literature. Persecuted in his homeland for his Political Views, Remarque was forced to emigrate, but this did not force him to abandon his language in a foreign land, where he continued to create.
Theme of the lost generation
The literary style of the writers of the Lost Generation is actually very individual, although common features can be traced both in content and in the form of expression. The hopeful and loving stories of the Victorian era are gone without a trace. The tone and mood of the letter changed dramatically.
Now the reader can feel all the cynicism of life through the text and those feelings that fill the structureless world, devoid of faith and purpose. The past is painted with bright and happy colors, creating an almost ideal world. While the present looks like a kind of gray environment, devoid of traditions and faith, and everyone is trying to find their own individuality in this new world.
Many writers, like Scott Fitzgerald in his work, have illuminated the superficial aspects of life along with the hidden dark feelings younger generation. They are often characterized by a spoiled style of behavior, a materialistic outlook on life and a complete lack of restrictions and self-control. In Fitzgerald's works, you can see how the writer criticizes the nature of this lifestyle, how excess and irresponsibility lead to destruction (for example, the novel Tender is the Night).
As a result, a feeling of dissatisfaction with the traditional model of storytelling took hold of the entire literary community. For example, Hemingway rejected the need to use descriptive prose to convey emotions and concepts. In support of this, he chose to write in a more complex and dry manner, paying great attention to dialogue and silence as meaningful techniques. Other writers, such as John Dos Passos, have experimented with the use of stream-of-consciousness paragraphs. Such writing techniques were used for the first time, largely reflecting the influence of the First World War on the younger generation.
The theme of the First World War is often used in the works of writers of the lost generation who directly visited its battlefields. Sometimes a work literally reflects the character of a participant in the War (for example, “Three Soldiers” by Dos Passos or “Hemingway”), or conveys abstract painting what America and its citizens became after the war (Thomas Eliot's The Waste Land or Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio). Often the actions are fraught with despair and inner doubt with rare sparks of hope on the part of the main characters.
To summarize, it should be noted that the term lost generation refers to those young writers who came of age during the First World War, which thereby, directly or indirectly, influenced the formation of their creative ideals. Realizing that the United States could no longer be the safe home it once was, many of them moved to Europe, forming a literary community of expatriate writers led, if somewhat controversially, by Gertrude Stein. Like something poignant from the past, their work is filled with heavy losses, and the main idea was a critique of the materialism and immorality that flooded post-war America.
The innovation of the established community was a break with traditional literary forms: Many writers have experimented with sentence structure, dialogue, and storytelling in general. The fact that the writers of the lost generation were themselves part of the changes they experienced and the search for the meaning of life in a new world for them makes them qualitatively different from many others. literary movements. Having lost the meaning of life after the war and being in constant search for it, these writers showed the world unique masterpieces of word-creative art, and we, in turn, can turn to their legacy at any moment and not repeat the mistakes of the past, because history is cyclical, and in such a fickle And changing world we need to try not to become another lost generation.