Post WW1 American Literature

Whether they came before the war, discovered it on active duty, or were drawn to it by the hedonism and headiness of its salon and café society, the expatriated writers of post WWI Paris hold a prominent place in the history of American literature. Described by Gertrude Stein in the epigraph to Earnest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises as "a lost generation," the intellectuals, poets, and novelists who rejected the social and political conservatism of the 1920's America to revel in the less restrictive morality of post WWI Europe created a bohemian enclave. A counterculture flourished as the devalued French currency made for a favorable exchange rare against the American dollar, and with the lower cost of living came inexpensive printing. The openness of publishers gave choice to the young, unknown, and experimentalist writers who would become the architects of modernism. The absence of Victorian morale and structures, which so dominated the literature of previous decades, is indicative of the modern movement. In expressing themes of spiritual alienation, self-exile, and cultural criticism, the lost generation has left a distinct mark on intellectual history. …