Gertrude Stein's cognitive poetics: The deconstruction of self and time

Gertrude Stein, one of the prominent authors in American modernist literature, positions herself among the most important figures in the modernist canon in the transition period from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century. She establishes her literary approach by arguing that the twentieth century literature should develop in a different direction. This approach mainly includes the rupture from the patriarchal conventions and the traditional literary methods of the nineteenth century. In this dissertation, the author?s two autobiographies, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and Everybody?s Autobiography, and her magnum opus, The Making of Americans, are addressed within this framework and examined in terms of object relations theory.The prominent issue in Gertrude Stein?s effort to form an innovative writing is her attempt at relating and defining herself in relation to writing. The position of writing in the the author?s life is examined by focusing on her effort in terms of D.W. Winnicott?s concepts of ?transitional objects? and ?potential spaces?. After questioning the importance of the literary searches in the formation of true self, how this affects the experimental structure of Gertrude Stein?s novel is discussed.In the dissertation, the past histories taking place in the author?s life and affecting her identity as an author it is focused on while examining the autobiographies,. After discussing how the sense of temporality and selfhood is formed and goes under continuous transformation in terms of the relation with other selves within the framework of object relations theory, the reflections of these issues in The Making of Americans are examined.