Self-Writing and Gertrude Stein

Paper Summary:

This paper defines the autobiography as one person's decision to chronicle his/her life by writing down the sum of their experiences, which allows readers to gain knowledge about him/her. The writer of this paper focuses on Gertrude Stein's writing in "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" which has since proven to be years ahead of feminist, literary and psychological theory. Stein was one of the first feminist fiction writers to bring the discussion of self-writing and its language to the forefront. The book chronicles the life of Stein and her long-time companion while focusing on the idea of self-definition. The title alone represents the parody Stein was creating by using the language of autobiography against itself. This paper examines Stein's method for breaking down both the societal constraints that foreclose on us and the walls of a genre that women, especially lesbian, expatriate writers, cannot identify with.

From the Paper:

"Essentially, Stein created the impersonal autobiography, a veiled construct allowing readers to enter, but leave with "only a vague idea of its situation." For instance, her descriptions of Alice and Gertrude travelling through the war zones in Europe are devoid of feeling. As she states, the war signaled the beginning of her studies of "the inside as seen from the outside." Readers learn that these two women were involved in history, but only an outline is given, opening the door for interpretation. Thus, the book chronicles her fascination with being "apart" of something, a movement, a nationality, a history, and yet being "a part" from it at the same time. In some instances, her and Alice play out a heterosexual relationship, in which Gertrude is the male and Alice is the female, or vice versa."

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