LOST GENERATION

The "Lost Generation" was the generation that came of age during World War I. Demographers William Strauss and Neil Howe outlined their Strauss–Howe generational theory using 1883–1900 as birth years for this generation. The term was coined by Gertrude Stein and popularized by Ernest Hemingway, who used it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In that volume Hemingway credits the phrase to Gertrude Stein, who was then his mentor and patron. This generation included artists and writers who came of age during the war such as F. Scott Fitzgerald,^[1] T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Olaf Stapledon, Sherwood Anderson, John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, E.E. Cummings, Hart Crane, Djuna Barnes, Glenway Wescott, Waldo Peirce, Abraham Walkowitz, Ezra Pound, Alan Seeger, Henry Miller, Aldous Huxley, Malcolm Cowley, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Erich Maria Remarque, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, the composers Sergei Prokofiev, Paul Hindemith, George Gershwin and Aaron Copland, and Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower


An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. Because an autobiographical novel is partially fiction, the author does not ask the reader to expect the text to fulfill the "autobiographical pact".^[1] Names and locations are often changed and events are recreated to make them more dramatic but the story still bears a close resemblance to that of the author's life. While the events of the author's life are recounted, there is no pretense of exact truth. Events may be exaggerated or altered for artistic or thematic purposes.

Roman à clef (French pronunciation: ​[ʁɔmɑ̃ a kle], anglicised as /roʊˌmɒn ə ˈkleɪ/^[1]), French for novel with a key, is a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction.^[2] The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction.^[3] The "key" may be produced separately by the author or implied through the use of epigraphs or other literary techniques.^[4]

Roman à clef . French for novel with a key, is a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction.^[3] The "key" may be produced separately by the author or implied through the use of epigraphs or other literary techniques
The roman à clef has since been used by writers as diverse as Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Jack Kerouac, Victor Hugo, and Charles Bukowski
The reasons an author might choose the roman à clef format include: satire; writing about controversial topics and/or reporting inside information on scandals without giving rise to charges of libel; the opportunity to turn the tale the way the author would like it to have gone; the opportunity to portray personal, autobiographical experiences without having to expose the author as the subject; avoiding self-incrimination or incrimination of others that could be used as evidence in civil, criminal, or disciplinary proceedings; and the settling of scores.^{[citation needed]} Biographically inspired works have also appeared in other literary genres and art forms, notably the film à clef.^{[citation needed]}

The small penis rule is an informal strategy used by authors to evade libel lawsuits.