Undergraduate senior thesis paper prepared for Bryn Mawr College Department of English
Abstract:
In The World Is Round and Ida, Gertrude Stein pairs storytelling with the construction of
identity, showing the ongoing relationship between the formal elements of a story and their creation. These books feature characters for whom self-identification becomes not only a quest within the story but also a gesture toward Stein’s authorial control and toward the false nature of any constructed character. As a commentary on the power of storytelling – the power both to create a character and to play out that character’s conscious attempts at controlling her identity – Stein’s continuous coupling of a narrative and the process of its creation results in work that demonstrates its own formation, telling the story of how a story about self-telling tells itself.