Synopses & Reviews
Gertrude Stein's works encompass a variety of genres. She explicitly called many of her works plays, operas, or novels intending her works to be read with certain generic expectations in mind, be it only to have them undermined. Although many writers depart from generic norms, Stein's generic transgressions are radical and are related to gender-specific traits of her writing. This work examines Stein's questions about gender hierarchies, classifications, and categories, and brings to light the direct relationship between gender and genre in her works. Gygax looks at a number of Stein's texts, including
Ida A Novel, A Circular Play, Everybody's Autobiography, The Geographical History of America, and
Blood on the Dining-Room Floor, which Stein called a detective story.
Readers bring to a text a set of expectations often relating to its genre. A novel, for example, is expected to share certain features with other novels, which is why it is not considered a play. But these distinctions are difficult to make, and writers often depart from generic conventions for the sake of being innovative. Generic expectations also closely relate to gender. For example, an autobiography may be read in light of the gender of the author. Like various genres, gender brings with it certain expectations, which are largely determined by social values. Some individuals transgress the conventional bounds of gender roles, just as some works of literature go beyond traditional generic frames.
The works of Gertrude Stein typically challenge the expectations of both gender and genre. As a lesbian writer, Stein was acutely aware of society's expectations with respect to gender. And in her writings, she is clearly concerned with genre. She explicitly calls many of her works plays, operas, or novels intending them to be read with certain generic expectations in mind only to transgress traditional generic expectations. Gygax explores why Stein was inevitably confronted with questions about gender and generic categories. Including a number of Stein's theoretical statements about writing, this insightful book illuminates the relationship between gender and genre in her works.
Synopsis
Examines the relationship between gender issues and the various generic forms of Gertrude Stein's writings.
Synopsis
Gertrude Stein's works encompass a variety of genres. She explicitly called many of her works "plays," "operas," or "novels" intending her works to be read with certain generic expectations in mind, be it only to have them undermined. Although many writers depart from generic norms, Stein's generic transgressions are radical and are related to gender-specific traits of her writing. This work examines Stein's questions about gender hierarchies, classifications, and categories, and brings to light the direct relationship between gender and genre in her works. Gygax looks at a number of Stein's texts, including Ida A Novel, A Circular Play, Everybody's Autobiography, The Geographical History of America, and Blood on the Dining-Room Floor, which Stein called a "detective story."
About the Author
FRANZISKA GYGAX is Lecturer in English at the University of Basel, where she teaches courses in American literature.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Gendered Genre
Family vs. Female Wandering
Departing from Patrilinearity: The Deconstruction of the Family and The Making of Americans
Ida and Id-Entity
Voices and Votes: Plays and Operas
Stein Plays: A Circular Play (1920)
The Multiple Voices of Ladies' Voices (1916)
"Preparing for Opera": Gertrude Stein and Susan B. Anthony, Mothers of Us All
Auto-Bio-Graphies
Whose Autobiography? I/Eye and Everybody's Autobiographies
The Double-Voiced Autobiography
The "I" in Everybody's Autobiography
Wars I Have Seen: Seeing and Telling Through the I/Eye
Foreign America: Four in America and Gertrude Stein
Detection and Meditation
The Subject fo Detection: Blood on the Dining-Room Floor
Stanzas in Meditation or Meditation in Stanzas
Conclusion
Stein's Compositional Approach: Beginning and Beginning
Composing and Rearranging
Rose and (Her) Autobiography
The Round World of Rose and Rose and Rose and Rose
Appendix: Stein's Manuscripts
Bibliography
Index