Mama Dada: Gertrude Stein, cinema, queerness, and avant-garde drama.

Abstract

Gertrude Stein emerged from the heart of the avant-garde in the 1920s Paris, disdaining the exclusively literary modernists (Joyce, Pound, Woolf) in favor of the visual, performance, and cinematic artists of the avant-garde (Picasso, Apollinaire, Man Ray). This dissertation analyzes the dramatic literature of Stein specifically within the context of turn-of-the-century avant-garde theatre movements. Although not formally considered a member of any group or movement at the time, Stein produced a body of dramatic literature that was remarkably similar to that of the established avant-garde, both in terms of theme and structure. In addition to comparing Stein's plays and theories with those generated by Dadaists, Surrealists, and Futurists, I also examine the uniqueness of Stein vis-a-vis such theatrical movements, including in my examination a discussion of her interest in American life and American history, feminism, and queerness. I additionally investigate the following formal devices shared by cinema, queerness, and the theatrical avant-garde: fragmentation, nonreproductivity, and repetition. It is my contention that, by examining and explaining the relationship among these three histories the dramatic writings of Gertrude Stein can be best elucidated not only as examples of literary modernism, but also as influential dramatic works that would have a lasting effect on the American theatrical avant-garde. Stein's dramatic oeuvre numbers, by at least one account, seventy-seven plays. Unfortunately, present criticism attempts to account for too many of these texts. It is my belief, however, that a number of these short plays are more akin to writing exercises than independent, fully conceived dramatic works. Therefore I examine a smaller, representative number of Stein's plays in greater depth than previous studies have done. The distinction between her major and minor works is based not on length, but on philosophical scope and aesthetic execution. Using the posited connection among the avant-garde, cinema, and queerness as the foundation for my examination, this dissertation analyzes Stein's two screenplays, <italic>A Movie</italic> (1920) and <italic> Film. Deux Soeurs Qui Ne Sont Pas Soeurs</italic> (1929), and her major plays: <italic> Four Saints in Three Acts</italic> (1927), <italic>They Must. Be Wedded. To Their Wife.</italic> (1931), <italic>Listen to Me</italic> (1936), <italic> Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights</italic> (1938), <italic>Yes Is for a Very Young Man</italic> (1944--45), and <italic>The Mother of Us All</italic> (1945--46). The final chapter examines the influence of Stein on American experimental theatre companies and artists such as The Living Theatre, Richard Foreman, and Robert Wilson, as well as the extent to which cinema, queer sexuality, and the avant-garde influence these artists and thus affect the state of present-day, non-mainstream American drama and theatre.