4 7 T h e L o s t G e n e r a t i o n a n d t h e J a z z A g e :
E x p e r i m e n t , M y t h , a n d T r a d i t i o n
(F. S. Fitzgerald, E. Hemingway, and J. Dos Passos)
T h e L o s t G e n e r a t i o n ( W W I – W W I I )
-the name: from G. Stein’s aphorism ‘You are all a lost generation.’
-a group of survivors of the WW I: crippled young men, heavy drinkers, and expatriates in Paris prominent in the inter-war period
-the Great War = a terrible betrayal resulting in the sense of loss, disillusionment, and disenchantment
T h e J a zz A g e ( 1 9 2 0 s )
H i st o r i c a l B a c kg r o u n d :
-an age of bohemian rebellion in the 1920s
-characteristic by the sense of rootlessness and the lack of sense of a serious purpose
-(–) WW I (1914 – 18), a flu epidemy (1918 – 19)
-(–) the tendency of moving to the cities: an increased criminality here
-(–) the Prohibition (1919): an increased consummation of alcohol, its illegal sale, and criminality
-(+) a scientific and economic boom: the rise of new technologies, capitalism, materialism, and the new money tycoons
-(+) entertainment: the rise of jazz and film entertainment
-(+) an Amendment to the Constitution: a change of the woman’s position, the franchise for women
-result: F. S. Fitzgerald announces (1931) the end of the Jazz Age in 1929
L i t e r a t u r e :
-a lit. growth comparable only to the Am. Renaissance
-the Am. lit. definitively ceases to be provincial
-the writers leave for Eur., and experiment
E a r l i e r G e n e r a t i o n ( u n t i l 1 9 1 2 ) :
-poetry: T. S. Eliot, E. Pound, H. D., M. Moore, C. Sandburg, E. L. Masters, R. Frost, W. C. Williams, and W. Stevens
-prose: G. Stein, S. Anderson, W. Cather, and S. Lewis
-drama: E. O’Neill
L a t e r G e n e r a t i o n ( a f t e r 1 9 1 9 ) :
-prose: W. Faulkner, J. D. Passos, E. Hemingway, F. S. Fitzgerald, and T. Wilder
-poetry: H. Crane
-drama: E. Rice, T. Wilder
W r i t e r s o f t h e H a r l e m R e n a i ssa n c e
F r a n c i s Sc o t t F i t zg e r a l d ( 1 8 9 6 – 1 9 4 0 )
L i f e :
-his father b. into a poor, though socially prominent family x his mother b. into ‘new money’
-felt a ‘poor boy’, though middle class > a deep ambivalence twd both money and social status
-left uni (Princeton) without degree, sacrificed academic achievement to social success, and equated social celebrity and success to lit. – see his “The Crack-up” (1936)
-received a military training
-fell in love with Zelda, worked desperately at his novel This Side of Paradise to win lit. and financial success to persuade Z. to marry him
-married Z. (1920): led a glamorous, extravagant, and emotionally stormy life style
-spent 2 y. at a Fr. Riviera seaside resort (1922 – 24): drank to excess, spent more than earned, and tried his hand at an unsuccessful play The Vegetable (1923)
-undertook a 2-y. extended Eur. trip (1924 – 26): met G. Stein and E. Pound, and began a tense competitive friendship with E. Hemingway
-experienced an abrupt reversal of fortune (1931): the deepening of the Great Depression, his deepening debts and alcoholism, and Z.’s mental breakdown and placement to a mental home
-declared the end of the Jazz Age
-continued drinking, tried scriptwriting to cover his debts x but: achieved no success, and died at 44 of a heart attack
W o r k :
-sensitiveness to social class
-a divided consciousness: simultaneously attracted x repulsed, enchanted x offended by sexual love and great wealth
-a new concept an archetypical Am. hero: a poor man gains money x but: not happiness money does not equal to happiness
-conc. with the Am. expatriate characters
F i c t i o n :
-his short stories publ. regularly in magazines with both commercial and critical success
Flappers and Philosophers (1920), Tales of the Jazz Age (1922), and All the Sad Young Men (1926):
-coll. of short stories
-introd. the word ‘flapper’ = a challenging, self-confident, and educated woman
-> “The Rich Boy”: the lead story of All the Sad Young Men
“Babylon Revisited”, “News of Paris — Fifteen Years Ago”, and “The Bridal Party”
This Side of Paradise (1920):
-an autobiog. novel about a young Princeton college student and his loves
-an immediate sensation
-F. became an overnight celebrity, a week after the publ. married Z., and became a cultural hero to the ‘flappers and philosophers’ of the era he named (= the Jazz Age)
The Beautiful and the Damned (1922):
-a young couple’s moral and sexual dissolution in parties, alcohol, and drugs
-his own experience of his marriage
-a failure
The Great Gatsby (1925):
-his finest novel about his favourite themes of love and money
-language: rich in vocabulary, original in figures of speech, and masterly in party descriptions and quick one sentence descriptions
-setting: the new money West Egg (Gatsby) x the old money East Egg (the Buchanans)
-symbols: G.’s house (= the ‘castle’ transported from Eur.), the green light G. likes to watch, the lines of the advertisement, symbolic settings, etc.
Themes:
-a poor man gains money x but: not happiness – G. succeeds in getting rich, throws parties hoping Daisy will show up x but: fails in winning her, fails to win even little respect by his guests
-a different social class produces a different temperament – D. shares many of her character features with Tom, none with G.
Characters:
-the would-be-upper class Gatsby: of obscure orig., displays the material things to impress, plays the extravagance though not enjoying it, and hopes to win the ticket to the upper class
-the middle class Nick: the only middle class character and the only round character
-G. N.: both try to win success, money, and love
-the upper class Daisy and Tom Buchanan: of an establ. secure social status, do not show at the parties, and do not need to show off their wealth
-D. T.: both cynical, selfish, and cruel in pursuing their respective aims (T. arranges G.’s death) = two mutually independent, individual, and morally empty beings sharing their character features and money
-(a) N. attracted by the old money x disliked G.’s new money and his showing off (his ‘college’ photo on the wall, his big house intended to impress, etc.)
-(b) N. eventually remained the only to respect G.
Tender is the Night (1934):
-the title: from J. Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale”
-an alcoholic Am. psychiatrist disastrously marries one of his wealthy patients, modelled after Zelda
-received poorly
The Last Tycoon:
-a self-made Hollywood producer
-remained unfinished
N o n - f i c t i o n :
“The Crack-up” (1936):
-his life the 1920s decade = a youthful enthusiasm and euphoria > tension and trauma
E r n e s t H e m i n g w a y ( 1 8 9 9 – 1 9 6 1 )
L i f e :
-b. in a Chicago suburb (IL)
-enjoyed organised sports, football, and boxing
-wrote for his high school’s newsp and lit. magazine
-learnt the ritual of the hunt, the code of the hunter, and the importance of physical endurance and courage while hunting and fishing with his father at his Michigan cottage
-became a reporter for the KS City Star
-tried to enlist in the WW I x but: rejected because of an eye defect volunteered for the Red Cross ambulance corps, and served in active duty in Ita.
-severely wounded many times in his life: WW I, car / plane crashes, shooting mishaps, fires, etc.
-> Paris: experienced a liberal moral climate, access to liquor (US Prohibition, 1919), and met the modernists E. Pound, G. Stein, S. Anderson, J. D. Passos, F. S. Fitzgerald, and J. Joyce
-> Canada: a reporter and correspondent reporter for the Toronto Star, cover war conflicts (Gr.-Turkish War, WW II, etc.), crime cases, interviewed Mussolini, etc.
-promoted a ‘masculine’ way of life both in his behaviour and writing
-committed suicide by shooting himself
W o r k :
-< E. Pound, G. Stein, and S. Anderson
-content: the violence of the modern world as ritualised in hunting, fishing, and bullfighting; and its consequences in physical wound, psychic suffering, and the question of how to live with pain
-stoicism, even cynicism x but: always a sense of sth wrong, and a sense of betrayal
-form: adapted journalistic techniques to fiction in his impersonal and telegraphic style, emphasis on direct description and dialogue, and avoidance of narrator commentary or interpretation
-language: restrained x but: vigorous; deceptively simple and spare (no ADJ) x but: disciplined and communicating a great deal in btw the lines
-setting: war or its aftermath = his favourite ones
-his style best manifested in his short stories, consid. a greater achievement than his novels, and became a still widely imitated and parodied ‘trademark’
-received the Nobel Prize
-no oth. major Am. writer achieved such pop. success, international celebrity, and world-wide reputation
Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923):
-his 1st publ. book
In Our Time (1925):
-a sequence of short stories set in the Michigan of his boyhood
-the protagonist Nick Adam’s growing up
-introd. and interspersed with a series of brief inter-chapters about the violence of the Gr.-Turkish War, political execution, and bullfighting
-intended to have the immediacy and impact of journalism
-< S. Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio
The Torrents of Spring (1926):
-an insensitive parody of S. Anderson
-an annoyed response to the critical references conc. his indebtedness to him
-one of his weakest efforts
The Sun Also Rises (US) = Fiesta (GB) (1926):
-a group of heavy-drinking, tough-talking, and hard-living expatriates
-Jake Barnes: the narrator, an Am. reporter in Paris, sexually impotent as a result of a war wound x Robert Cohn, his romantically strained friend x Lady Brett Ashley, the sexually liberated femme fatale, both admired and feared
-expresses the post-war mood of the lost generation, and uses the G. Stein’s phrase as an epigraph
-to learn how to live life can sometimes help us to understand it
-one of his best novels
Men Without Women (1927):
-a coll. of short stories
A Farewell to Arms (1929):
-an Am. ambulance officer Henry suffers a wound in Ita., falls in love with a Br. nurse Catherine, and deserts with her
-finds a ‘separate peace’ in Switzerland to have it shattered as both C. and his child die at childbirth
-C. = an angel happy to devote herself only to nursing H. x Brett in The Sun also Rises
Death in the Afternoon (1932):
-a now classic novel about bullfighting
-his life philosophy: fascination with danger and death, and commitment to honour and valour
-his characteristic style: H.: ‘grace under pressure’
Winner Take Nothing (1933):
-a coll. of short stories
The Green Hills of Africa (1935):
-his own experience of Af. Safaris
-a blend of travel description, a big-game hunting, and lit. commentary
-> “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”
-> “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”
To Have and Have Not (1937):
-his only novel with the Am. Setting
-a FL fishing boat captain smuggles rum from Cuba to fight against the Depression
-an appeal to the ‘socially aware’ readers
The Fifth Column (1938):
-a play about his own journalistic experience of the Sp. Civil War
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940):
-his most political novel about his own journalistic experience of the Sp. Civil War
-the title: from J. Donne
-an Am. academic heroically sacrifices his life in what proves to be a lost cause (against General Franco, for peasants)
-Maria, a fantasy figure of girlish submission x Catherine in A Farewell to Arms x Brett in The Sun also Rises
Across the River and into the Trees (1950):
-an idyllic romance, poorly received
Islands in the Stream (1970, posthum.):
-a ‘sea novel’, much troubled when writing it, and eventually publ. posthum.
-The Old Man and the Sea (1952), a long self-contained individually publ. section: a parable-like tale of an old Cuban fisherman succeeding in catching a giant marlin x but: failing to keep the sharks from eating it – won him the Pulitzer Prize, and led to the Nobel Prize
A Moveable Feast (1964, posthum):
-a coll. of reminiscences drawing on his notes and journalistic writings
also wrote following short stories of distinction:
“Fifty Grad”
“In Another Country”
J o h n D o s P a sso s
[see P. under ‘44 Modernist Experiments in Fiction’]