15. Literature between wars, Fitzerald

15. LITERATURE BETWEEN THE WARS
F. S. FITZGERALD: THE GREAT GATSBY

LOST GENERATION

• A generation of artists born at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries; after WWI they were mentally (and some also physically) devastated. Some of them personally experienced the horrors of war → they saw how people were killed → after war they were full of disillusionment, they lost belief in “modern“ society - they lost all their ideals and dreams.

• Those men can’t live in a stereotypical world and they seek for other possibilities – they see comfort in nature – they are, same as their main characters in their books, lost

• The name “Lost generation“ was first used by Gertrude Stein; but who came with it – plumber he overheard conversation of purpose of life, meaning of life that is why he used the word lost

• after the war many writers of this generation were concentrated in Paris.

• They were lost in company of others

• The best-known personalities: G. Stein, E. Hemingway, F.S. Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Dreiser, Ezra Pound

Existecialism = experience oh human subject, purpose of life, importance of the physical world

Nihilismus = all values are baseless

KIrkegaard

WOMEN

• Women before the roaring twenties: stayed at home, couldn’t inherit, dependent on their husbands → there was practically no possible escape from the marriage and if there was → single women were usually ridiculed, low salary, would not be able to do much

• Roaring twenties

• 20th century brought women courage

  • WW1: life is more than house and kids, 1st independence, right to vote, they took care of everything, when the men went to fight

• Flappers = outgoing women with having short hair, shorts skirts, they were driving cars, smoking, drinking, provocatively dancing in jazz clubs and having casual sex

• They rejected the life of their mothers and lived the opposite way

• 1923 women introduced Equal rights amendment to Congress → accepted in 1972 (all discrimination based on sex was now illegal)

• Pink collar job: education = more available for women of privileged class, they would go to job focused on education, nursing, fashion and social work, still faced discrimination, were payed less than their male co-workers. But they could not say anything → losing the job

F. S. FITZGERALD (1896 – 1940)

• “Jazz Age“ – 20´s – relative prosperity (everything was available, but most people bought on credit); A phenomenon called American Dream appeared and became very popular and fashionable.

• The time of prohibition and racism

• He was the spokesman of the youth

• He went to war with enthusiasm, but he soon saw the harsh reality and feared death

• He focused on the problem of social classes, richness and the American dream

• His wife Zelda suffered from schizophrenia and he often used her in his work. They both struggled with alcoholism – to earn money, Fitzgerald wrote scripts in Hollywood

  • Zelda was from a rich family, she was beautiful. She at first didn’t want to live on Fitzgerald’s small salary and broke their engagement. She then came back after his book’s success