Download What was the Lost Generation?

A Lost Generation?
Standard 10.6.3 Understand the
widespread disillusionment with prewar
institutions, authorities, and values that
resulted in a void that was later filled by
totalitarians.
Standard 10.6.4 Discuss the influence of
World War I on literature, art, and
intellectual life in the West (e.g., Pablo
Picasso, the "lost generation" of
Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway).
April 14
HW: No Homework!
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Welcome Back!
The Inter War Years…
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We are now going to look at what happened in the years
between WWI and WWII.
 We’ll start with European reactions to WWI.
 Take out your Consequences of WWI paper from a
while ago.
 Look at your answer to the BSQ on the back.
What are Europeans dealing with after WWI is over?
Please get The Lost Generation Cornell Notes- Pg
110A/B
What was the Lost Generation?
The lost generation was a term coined by
Gertrude Stein to describe young American
artists (mostly writers) who rejected American
ideals in the 1920s and moved to Paris to live
the bohemian lifestyle (party it up, live for
today, because there may be no tomorrow).
Famous members of the Lost Generation
included Stein herself, Ernest Hemingway,
Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The Lost Generation thought
that Western Civilization was
coming to an End…
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1918
Why would intellectuals
have thought WWI was
the end of the superiority
of Western Civilization?
The Lost Generation felt betrayed by
their leaders, their culture, and their
institutions.
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They asked themselves “How could all this
death and destruction have been allowed to
happen?”
They felt helpless, and lost. They despaired
for the future. Where once they had trusted,
now they did not. It appeared that Good
had lost the battle against Evil.
Writers tried to capture the bleak
hopelessness of War
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T.S. Eliot- The Waste Land (1922)
JRR Tolkien- The Lord Of The Rings (1937-1954)
F. Scott Fitzgerald- The Great Gatsby (1925)
Ernest Hemingway
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An American novelist
Served in WWI
A Farewell to Arms (1929)
"I know the night is not the same as the day: that all
things are different, that the things of the night cannot
be explained in the day, because they do not then
exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely
people once their loneliness has started."
HW: Notes for Literature in the 1920’s, Pg. 464
Please open your book to
Literature in the 1920’s, Pg. 464
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Add to your notes from the book!
Now get a Very Short Story
handout…
This story was written by Hemingway after
WWI. Hemingway fought and was injured in
WWI.
 First, read the story with your partner…
Then answer these questions in your notes:
 ASQ: Describe the tone of this story.
 BSQ: How might the tone be related to the
experiences of WWI?
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April 15
HW: Finish book work from today
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Please get a book and your Lost Generation
Cornell Notes paper.
Modern Art- Artists tried to capture new
perceptions of reality…
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Old styles of art
couldn’t express the
deep distress caused
by WWI.
In many cases, people
did not want to
remember the war too
clearly or too exactly.
WWI changed the
way people perceived
the world and this was
reflected in their art.
“Those Who Have Lost Their Names”
Albin Eggar-Linz, 1914
“Oppy Wood” – John Nash, 1917
“Gassed and Wounded”
Eric Kennington, 1918
Cubism- Reality broken into Pieces
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Cubism was born out of
the experience of the
WWI battlefield.
At night, exploding bombs
lit the sky in quick flashes,
causing the world to look
disjointed, distorted,
disordered, and broken
up into stark pieces.
In Cubism…
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Objects are broken up
and re-assembled in
abstract form.
Picasso
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Pre-WWI work
African masks
Notes for Revolution in the Arts, Pg. 465
What do
you see?
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Pablo
Picasso,
Three
Musicians,
1921
What do you see?
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Pablo
Picasso,
Still Life,
1924
Surrealism- Trying
to show how things
Feel
During WWI, the founder of
surrealism, André Breton, who
had trained in medicine and
psychiatry, served in a neurological
hospital where he used the
psychoanalytic methods of
Sigmund Freud with soldiers who
were shell-shocked.
 He sought a way to express the
inner workings of the mind, those
feelings, experiences, urges and
impressions that were separated
from logic and reason.
 Surrealism is an art movement that
sought to link the world of dreams
with real life.
Surreal—beyond or above reality
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Yves
Tanguy, Indefinite Divisibility 1942
How is this painting connected to the
idea of Perception?
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Salvador
Dali, The
Persistence
of Memory,
1931
What do you see?
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Salvador
Dali, The
Temptation
of St Anthony
What does
this painting
tell you
about how
the artist is
feeling?
HW: Notes for Revolution in the Arts, Pg. 465
Please do not talk at this time
April 16/17
HW: No Homework!
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Please Get Out your Lost Generation Notes
and a book!
Psychology-Trying to find out how the
brain works
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Sigmund Freud—physician- He opened a
window on the unconscious — where, he
said, lust, rage and repression battle for
supremacy — and changed the way we view
ourselves- TIME Magazine
Believed that human behavior is irrational
Believed humans are driven by their
unconscious mind
Believed dreams could help people
understand their unconscious
Freud greatly influenced the surrealists
See also: Influence of Freudian Psychology, Pg. 463
Science- Trying to find out how the
physical world really works
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Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
German-born physicist- a true out of the box thinker the genius among geniuses who discovered, merely
by thinking about it, that the universe was not as it
seemed. –TIME Magazine
Discovered that space and time are not constant
Known for seeing things from an entirely new angle,
and then devising simple experiments to prove his
ideas.
Theory of Relativity changed how people viewed the
world
Werner Heisenberg—Uncertainty Principle (1927)
The more precisely the position is determined, the
less precisely the momentum is known in this instant,
and vice versa.
Believed we could know what we couldn’t know
See also: Impact of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, pg. 463
Philosophy- Trying to decide what we
should think about next…
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John Paul Sartre, Albert
CamusExistentialism- Humans must
define their own Reality
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There is no universal meaning to
life. There is no one way to
order or explain the universe
We must create our own meaning
We can never truly understand
each other, because we are all too
different. No two understandings
are the same.
See also: Thinkers React to Uncertainties, Pg. 464
Existentialism in the movies….
WOODY ALLEN: That's quite a lovely Jackson Pollock, isn't it?
GIRL IN MUSEUM: Yes it is.
WOODY ALLEN: What does it say to you?
GIRL IN MUSEUM: It restates the negativeness of the universe, the
hideous lonely emptiness of existence, nothingness, the predicament of
man forced to live in a barren, godless eternity, like a tiny flame
flickering in an immense void, with nothing but waste, horror, and
degradation, forming a useless bleak straightjacket in a black absurd
cosmos. [pause]
WOODY ALLEN: What are you doing
Saturday night?
GIRL IN MUSEUM: Committing suicide.
WOODY ALLEN: What about Friday night?
GIRL IN MUSEUM: [leaves silently]
"Play It Again, Sam", Paramount Pictures,
1972;
Now look at your set of
information about the
New way of thinking in
Europe… What do you
notice? What words would
you use to describe how
people are seeing the
world and their place in it?
Historical Quotes- A glimpse at changing philosophy (what
you think) and ideology (what you believe)
Get a piece of paper with Quotes on it (pg.
111A)
Quote
Philosophy
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Next to each Quote, write the name of the
philosophy it describes it.
What answers did you get?
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“Meaning has to be sought out, there is
no universal meaning to life. We create 
our own meaning through life choices
and our actions. While there is no moral
certainty, we do have agency in that we
can make choices.”
“Love God, your neighbors, your
enemies, and yourself. Every individual
has worth and at the same time each
individual has a responsibility to the
whole community. You should live your
life according to moral rules.”
“The realistic portrayal of life is not the
purpose of art. Art should capture the
inner world of emotion, feeling, and the
workings of our imagination and
unconscious mind.”
“Art should capture a realistic portrait of
the world. It should show everyday
people and the world around us.”
Existentialism
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Christianity
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Surrealism
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Realism
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“The universe is governed by a
specific set of laws. The universe was
ordered by God the creator.”
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Newtonian Law
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Freudian Thought
“Every person has the gift of reason
and as science uncovers more and
more knowledge about the physical
world, reason and knowledge will
bring about progress. Truths can be
revealed through observation and
uncovering of evidence.”
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Enlightenment
“Time and space are not constant,
perception is relative to one’s
experiences, there are no absolute
truths.”
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Theory of Relativity
“Much of human behavior is irrational
and beyond reason. We are driven by
that part of the mind that is
unconscious and our unconscious
pursues actions determined by our
desires.”
Lost Generation Match Up…
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Take a look at your list. Can you find pairs
that go together in some way.
How would you describe the relationship
between these pairs?
Draw a line connecting the pairs you can find
on your handout.
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Newtonian Law
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Theory of Relativity
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Enlightenment
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Freudian Thought
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Christianity
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Existentialism
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Realism
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Surrealism
Guess what historical event this
line represents…
WWI
Now answer the
question on the
bottom of your
handout:
How have people’s
Philosophy and
Ideology changed?
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The Lost Generation Cornell Notes- Pg
123A/B
Lost Generation Quotes Paper- Pg. 124A