The Ex-pats Go to War

Hemingway, Paris and the Recovery of American Identity

Authors

  • Hayder Naji Shanbooj Alolaiwi Iraqi Ministry of Education-Al Qadissiya Directorate of Public Education

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31973/aj.v1i144.3775

Keywords:

America, Europe, exile, Hemingway (Ernest), identity, Lost Generation, war

Abstract

The present research is devoted to the post-WWI social and cultural milieu that made possible the intellectual and artistic effervescence characterizing the literary production of the American ex-pat writers in Paris during the 1920s and 1930s. The research is structured in an Introduction, four chapters, and Conclusion. After a necessary general presentation, the researcher goes deeper into the analysis of the identity crisis experienced by several American writers in exile, whom Gertrude Stein, herself an ex-pat, called “the Lost Generation” – among them, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis, and Samuel Putnam. Starting from the assumption that by discovering Europe, the American writers discovered themselves, the researcher chose Hemingway to represent the post-WWI generation of American ex-pats and followed the writer’s search for identity, seen as a process of singularization based on recognizing that we share a common origin or circumstances with another person or community. Ample space is devoted to Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises, where a feeling of uselessness and nonsense accompanies the characters. Having (re)discovered their identity in Paris, many returned to their native America, rediscovering her as more disappointing than expected.

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Author Biography

  • Hayder Naji Shanbooj Alolaiwi, Iraqi Ministry of Education-Al Qadissiya Directorate of Public Education

    Teacher at Ghareeb-Tus Intermediate school for boys

References

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Published

2023-03-15

Issue

Section

English linguistics and literature

How to Cite

The Ex-pats Go to War: Hemingway, Paris and the Recovery of American Identity. (2023). Al-Adab Journal, 144, 11-28. https://doi.org/10.31973/aj.v1i144.3775

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