American Writers Research Articles

THE LOST GENERATION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE AND CULTURE IN THE WAKE OF WORLD WAR I

The Lost Generation refers to a cohort of American writers who emerged in the aftermath of World War I, characterized by their disillusionment with traditional values and societal norms. This article examines the historical context surrounding the Lost Generation, highlighting how the war's brutality led to a profound sense of alienation and existential questioning among these writers. Key figures such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and T.S. Eliot are discussed for their contributions to modernist literature, showcasing recurring themes of disillusionment, alienation, and the critique of the American Dream. The influence of the Lost Generation extends beyond literature into visual arts and music, reflecting broader cultural movements of the 1920s and 1930s. Ultimately, the legacy of the Lost Generation continues to resonate in contemporary literature and culture, offering insights into the human condition that remain relevant today.

THE LOST GENERATION AND ITS EXPLORATION OF DISILLUSIONMENT AND ALIENATION IN A CHANGING WORLD OF LITERATURE

The Lost Generation, a cohort of American writers who came of age during and after World War I, profoundly shaped the literary landscape of the early 20th century. Characterized by a pervasive sense of disillusionment and alienation, these writers sought to articulate their experiences in a world irrevocably altered by war and societal change. This article explores the central themes of identity crisis and alienation in the works of key figures such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and T.S. Eliot. It examines innovative narrative techniques, symbolism, and the impact of place, particularly the expatriate experience in Paris. The analysis highlights how the literature of the Lost Generation reflects broader societal issues, including gender dynamics and class disparities, while offering a timeless commentary on the human condition in an increasingly fragmented world.

Evolution of Category of the Other in Works of Tom Wolfe

This article addresses the artistic embodiment of the category of the Other in the works of American journalist and writer Tom Wolfe. The study focuses on Wolfe’s early journalistic essays, compiled in collections published in the early 1960s, as well as his later novel “I Am Charlotte Simmons” (2004). These texts are separated by nearly the entire second half of the 20th century — a period marked by the emergence, flourishing, and decline of postmodernism. The aim of this work is to trace the diachronic evolution of the author’s understanding of the category of the Other, as represented in his early and late texts. The desire for otherness among young people in the first post-war decades signified a fundamental rejection of norms, rules, and laws in the name of rejecting all forms of totalitarianism, which led to the catastrophic destruction of humanity during World War II. As a journalist, Wolfe objectively and empathetically depicts the diverse lifestyles of a new generation. He illustrates the consequences of these emerging trends in his university novel written forty years later. The article demonstrates that this work presents the otherness of various status groups within the university community through a multi-layered conflict. However, these groups remain isolated and hostile towards one another. The abandonment of rational consciousness has led to the primitivization of individuality and the disintegration of education. The novel serves as a vivid illustration of the negative outcomes of postmodernism.

“The Face of the Buffalo”: Interspecies Relationality in Nawal El Saadawi’s God Dies by the Nile

In several interviews, the Egyptian American writer and feminist Nawal El Saadawi has emphasized her commitment to women’s rights and gender justice in Africa and the Arab world. However, there is hardly any reference regarding her engagement with animals. Yet her writing is replete with animal subjectivity. Therefore, this paper examines animal representations in El Saadawi’s God Dies by the Nile by unearthing what we conceptualize as her “complex animal imaginary,” a concept encompassing the anthropomorphic and zoomorphic currents in her novel. Although her narrative language constitutes and conveys such vocabularies, this hardly undermines El Saadawi’s recognition of interspecies relationality and how central the nonhuman is to the flourishing of humans. As such, we highlight her register of animality that presents humans in zoomorphic imagery, stressing that this strategy not only makes legible human suffering but also flattens animal subjectivity, thereby reducing the buffalo, named Aziza, in this case, to a figure of abjection. However, we argue that this representational strategy neither erases animal vitality nor reinscribes speciesism. But instead, it uncovers animal suffering in society. By focusing on interspecies relationality in God Dies, we amplify El Saadawi’s contribution to ongoing conversations on animal studies, postcolonial ecocriticism, and posthumanism.

George Kennan as a Prototype of the Englishman in the Novel Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy

This article is based on the hypothesis that George Kennan, the American journalist, traveler, and writer, who visited Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana in summer of 1886, was one of the prototypes of the Englishman in Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection. The book Siberia and the Exile System by George Kennan was one of the sources of Resurrection. We can trace the certain parallels in the description of the Siberian prison stage, some exiles whom Kennan met, the hotels in Irkutsk where he used to stay. Though earlier there were some speculations about the missionary F.W. Baedeker and the journalist Harry de Windt as the possible models of the Englishman in Resurrection. Yet the research of the draft versions of Resurrection, archival and other sources testify to the fact that still Kennan, if not the only one, but one of the most feasible prototypes of the Englishman in Resurrection.

A Journey to Healing Pain: Trauma Writing of Charlie Gordon in Flowers for Algernon

Flowers for Algernon, first published in 1959, is a novel written by the American writer Daniel Keyes. It tells the story of Charlie Gordon’s journey from having an intellectual disability to gaining extraordinary intelligence, as well as his regression when one experimental procedure starts to goes wrong. “Trauma” is a marked theme in the work, which plays a vital role in portraying characters and developing plots. In the light of trauma theory, this essay puts a focus on the relationship between trauma and the individual, and author of this paper argues that family and society are two major roots in imposing misery upon the protagonist. With the interference of technology, trauma is rediscovered and represented by his confusion, maladjustment, and rage. Ultimately, he treats it through finding himself, building connections with others, and doing contributions to the society. It is concluded that based on writing the trauma of the intelligently disabled, Keyes vividly communicates his concerns on then further revealing the theme of science and technology, goodness, and wisdom.

Botanical imaginary of indigeneity and rhizomatic sustainability in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy

Abstract This article explores a botanical imaginary in A Mercy (2008), the ninth narrative by African American writer and critic Toni Morrison. Arguably, A Mercy features the botanical design of the rhizome to activate a revisionary model of sustainability. In particular, the narrative’s imaginary suggests a synergy that liberates the restrictive root of Indigeneity as a precondition to reconcile a tension of rigid binaries with the customary routes that lead to closure. This reconciliation will enunciate a radical break with the limited sustainability paradigms that are still constitutive of colonial modernity. Arguably, A Mercy features a transgressive array of journeys whose rhizomatic root of biodiversity transcends what is cultivated in the colonial American soil and mobilizes symbiotic and liberatory sustainability for humans and non-humans. Deleuze and Guattari’s principles of the “rhizome” philosophy contribute a main theoretical framework for construing the narrative’s botanical composition that suspends the inequitable realization of sustainability.

“Two normative orders”: Time, the body, and memory in Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods, Inc.

ABSTRACT Foreign Gods, Inc. by Nigerian American writer Okey Ndibe (2014) features the protagonist’s return to his native Nigeria to steal the statue of the local deity for monetary gain. The novel establishes the connection between the loss of respect for the Indigenous belief system and the forces of colonialism and their aftermath in a globalized context. This article argues that the novel’s theme occurs through unifying into realistic representation the three principles of Igbo epistemology – interconnectedness, cause and effect, and reincarnation – as encoded in time, the body, and memory. These dual orders endorse a powerful vision of nature and question the anthropocentric vision embedded in colonialism and capitalism. By incorporating the principles of these dual orders, the novel displays the rich cosmos of the Igbo community that disrupts the discourse of othering and discourages its continuation in the contemporary world.

Images as Invitations: Fostering Reader Engagement and Collaboration in Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Small Backs of Children

Abstract: This paper analyzes how Lidia Yuknavitch, an American writer and creative writing teacher, employs vivid and evocative imagery to foster a participatory reading experience in her autofictional novel The Small Backs of Children (2015). Grounded in Ellen Joann Esrock’s thesis from “Visual Imaging and Reader’s Response”, this analysis explores how Yuknavitch strategically invites readers to collaborate in the storytelling process. By doing so, Yuknavitch creates a dynamic interaction where meaning is co-created by the author and her audience. Yuknavitch’s narrative style blends the visceral with the conceptual using imagery that transcends mere description to evoke powerful emotional and intellectual responses. The imagery in The Small Backs of Children serves as a bridge between the text and the reader, transforming the act of reading into interactive practice. By blurring the lines between authorship and readership, Yuknavitch redefines traditional storytelling, positioning the reader as an active participant in the narrative. This paper demonstrates the diverse ways in which Yuknavitch’s prose engages readers, transforming the act of reading into a collaborative process of creation of meaning and emotion.

A REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION OF EDGAR ALLAN POE’S WORKS INTO THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IN THE XIX CENTURY

The literary legacy of Edgar Allan Poe transcends borders, captivating readers worldwide with his haunting tales of mystery, macabre, and psychological depth. Among the numerous languages into which Poe’s works have been translated, the French language occupies a prominent place, reflecting the enduring fascination of French readers with his oeuvre. This paper undertakes a comprehensive examination of the history of French translations of Poe’s works made in the 19th century and the special passion French artists had for the American writer. Through a meticulous overview of archival materials, literary criticism, and translation studies, this research illuminates the evolution of French translations of Poe’s writings, shedding light on the cultural, linguistic, and editorial factors that have shaped their reception in France. It explores the pivotal role played by translators, such as Charles Baudelaire and Stephan Mallarmé, in introducing Poe to the French literary scene and examines the strategies employed to render his unique style and thematic preoccupations into French. In analyzing the translations, we have drawn on some archival material from the French press, literary criticism, and a body of existing research on the subject. This study considers the ways in which French translators have interpreted and reinterpreted Poe’s works in light of changing literary and cultural sensibilities. By tracing the trajectory of French translations of Poe’s works, this paper not only contributes to our understanding of the reception of one of America’s foremost literary figures in France but also offers insights into the dynamics of literary translation and cultural exchange. It underscores the enduring relevance and adaptability of Poe’s writings across linguistic and cultural boundaries, highlighting the ways in which they continue to resonate with readers in France and beyond.

SEARCH FOR THE LINGUOCULTUROLOGICAL PRINCIPLE OF TRANSLATING METAPHORS IN STEPHEN KING’S SMALL WORKS (BASED ON STORIES “THE APT PUPIL” AND “RAINY SEASON”)

This article analyzes the creative heritage of the American writer Stephen King who has become famous for his works in the genres of horror literature and dark fantasy. In the course of the study, the authors study semantic, functional, structural metaphors, their stylistic and linguocultural features using the example of Stephen King’s stories “The Apt Pupil” and “Rainy Season”. The research methodology is based on a comparative analysis of the original works and translations by Russian linguists S.E. Task, M.V. Opaleva, V.V. Antonov, I.G. Pochitalin, B.G. Lyubartsev, V.A. Weber. The chronological framework of the study covers the period of the conceptualization of Stephen King’s work (translations by S.E. Task and I.G. Pochitalin) from 1991 to the latest experiments in the linguocultural rethinking of the comparative method (translation by V.V. Antonov) in 2012-2013. The main course of the study directed at analyzing the characteristic features of original metaphors and their translation forms, which lose and gain unique cultural features in comparison with the context in English. This approach clearly demonstrates not only the diversity of the author’s idiostyle, which touches on both the mystical-religious and personal feelings of the modern man, but also the acute social problems of modern society. It allows us to trace the emergence of new meanings in translated forms of metaphors. The results of the study show that quite often translators of Stephen King, trying to adapt the text, lose flexibility.

An Analysis of the Protagonist’s Behavior in <i>Herzog</i> from Yi-Fu Tuan’s Escapism

The novel <i>Herzog</i> by the American writer Saul Bellow has received wide attention since its publication in 1964. It centers around the protagonist Moses Herzog’s life after his second divorce, in which he is often in a state of uneasiness, going from place to place to avoid problems, writing unsent letters to express dissatisfaction, seeking comfort from others when in trouble, and losing himself in memories when frustrated. According to the Chinese-American humanistic geographer Yi-Fu Tuan’s escapism theory, the behavior is in fact escapism. What Herzog really wants to escape is society, others, and himself, and escaping from place to place or person to person, and creating material world and spiritual world, are the different ways of his escapism. And during the process of escape, with embarrassment, pains, impulse and constant self-introspection, he gradually gains strength, and evolves from negative escapism to positive escapism, temporarily achieving reconciliation with reality. There are many reasons for Herzog’s escapism, among which his American Jewish identity, the turmoil of the American society in 1960s, the decline of the intellectuals’ status and the rise of feminism at that time all play a key role. Herzog’s escapism is actually a product of his time, a process of reconstruction of relationship between male and female, and a seeking-existence journey of an intellectual with different ethnicity in American society, with positive escapism born out of negative one.

Material Ethics in Trans-corporeal Space: A Study of Alejandro Morales’s The Rag Doll Plagues

ABSTRACT The Rag Doll Plagues, by Mexican American writer Alejandro Morales, underlines the racial dimension of the environmental crisis while also demonstrating the material interdependence between human and more-than-human worlds through the lens of trans-corporeality. By exploring the material connection between the poisoned body and the environment; the interaction between the marginalized body and nonhuman as subject; and the mutant body’s agency as a “habitat” and “thing,” this paper highlights the evolving and dynamic relationship between the porous human body and various forms of living and non-living entities within and beyond its borders. Morales's plague reminds humanity to break away from narrow, teleological thinking in the face of disaster and to adopt a mode of thought that is interconnected with the world as well as attentive to, and appreciative of, the vitality of non-living entities, thus fostering a nonlinear, open “material ethics”.

Interpreting A Rose for Emily

William Faulkner is a famous American writer, who receives the 1950 Nobel Prize for Literature. His short story, A Rose for Emily, makes a deep impression on me. Different people hold diverse opinions on the short story since its publication. Here is my thought: Emily is the victim of tradition and love.

State Violence, Divine Abuse

Abstract It is tempting to attribute state violence to the imposition of a normative order, and it is tempting to construct an opposition between sanctifying that order and messianic interruptions of that order. This framework supposes that God, and the surrounding language of the sacred, follows the logic of rule, imposing a set of expectations on what is to be done enforced by threat of punishment. But what if we centre the story of Job in our account of the divine and with it an image of God as abuser rather than ruler, that is, God as only imposing the phantom of norms, norms that shift or evaporate as soon as they are imposed, never fulfilling a promise of reward or threat of punishment as expected? I explore this possibility through brief encounters with two texts on the racial violence of the state, one by Aimé Césaire and the other by the contemporary Black American writer Kiese Laymon.

Simple Life, Rich Soul

Henry David Thoreau was an outstanding American philosopher, writer and representative figure of transcendentism in the 19th century, and he was famous for his advanced ecological wisdom and profound naturalist philosophy. Combing the analysis of human alienation, Thoreau’s ecological thought, and its harmony with Chinese ecological thought, this paper can better understand Thoreau’s unique insights into ecological development and the expectations of different civilizations to learn from each other in peace.

Her Fierce Faith: Contextualizing Ellen Tarry as a Catholic Convert and Foremother of Black Lives Matter Activism

Abstract: This article contextualizes the timely significance of Ellen Tarry as an African American teacher, writer, activist, and Catholic convert who engaged in interracial justice before, during, and after the Civil Rights Movement. It similarly presents her as a foremother of present-day Black Lives Matter (BLM) activism. Locating her divergences from other Black writers across time, this analysis features the distinctive admixture of secular and sacred values pervading her writings and work as a Harlem Renaissance journalist, autobiographer, and pioneering author of picture books for Black children and youth that promoted collaborative Catholic social action on behalf of her race.

The books of V. Biržiška library at the library of the Kaunas A. Sniečkus politechnic institute

Vaclovas Biržiška (1884-1956) is a famous Lithuanian bibliographer and researcher of the press. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the collection of books from Biržiška's personal library is given in the article. There are 1,480 publications in this collection. 1,072 books are intended for personal purposes. There are books on bibliography, history, pedagogy, and natural science. The collection also includes fiction by Lithuanian, Russian, Western European, American, and Scandinavian writers. The collection is divided into four parts according to language: Lithuanian (495 copies), Russian (520 copies), Polish (304 copies), and other foreign languages (161 copies). The books are marked by Biržiška's personal ex-libris, designed by P. Galaunė and V. Kosciuška.

On the Narrative of “Things” in Tobacco Road

American writer E.，Erskine Caldwell’ s novel Tobacco Road depicts the ignorant, backward and miserable lives of poor whites in the American South, revealing the ills of the southern society during that era. In the novel, the boundaries between people and objects are blurred, and people are objectified as victims of land and social oppression. Furthermore, things have an active power in the novel, driving the plot and carrying historical and spatial significance at the same time. The dilapidated houses and deserted farmland symbolise the end of an era and foreshadow social change. By analysing the “things” in the work, we can gain a deeper understanding of the tensions between peasants and natural resources, as well as the injustices in the social structure. The perspective of the object narrative also provides us with profound social and cultural insights into the economic exploitation and cultural oppression suffered by the poor sharecroppers in the South under the imperial rule.

A Timeline of Journalistic Influence of Writing on the Gilded Age in American Literature

The themes found in the writings by authors during the Gilded Age are still prevalent in writings of the twenty-first century. The Gilded Age, a term used to describe a period of economic boom after the American Civil War at the turn of the century, influenced communication to readers by using the ethos unearthed by writers who were opposed to a particular politician and their policies. The Gilded Age was a time of rapid economic growth through the invention of the railroad and business. What looked like a golden time was an era of great growing pains in America between the industrial worker and the wealthy business owner. What the Gilded Age symbolized in both life and writing has become a model of writing that extended to current literature. American writers contributed to a great body of literature that flourished during the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was a time of rapid economic growth through the invention of the railroad and business. Literature was used as a social revolt that violated the growing power of business and growing government corruption that outlined the utopias of the inefficiency of a capitalistic system. Within genres of writing such as Poetry, the later nineteenth century, and early years of the twentieth century were a poor period for American poetry providing themes of distress, doubts, and fears about American life. Within the genres of writing, newspaper writing played a crucial role in exposing scandals, the pathos of the American Dream, and the logos or persuasion by using the trials of society. Writing was a powerful communication tool during the Gilded Age that allowed writers to target events during this era. Newspaper writing was important to communicating prominent issues to the public, as it upheld ideals to question government and keep it accountable. However, the Gilded Age writings helped to permanently etch in the minds of readers the importance of themes that were prevalent post-Civil War that impacted the writing and writers of American Literature.