Gertrude Stein Research Paper

Although many students do not comprehend the writings of Gertrude Stein, universities consider them as relevant literature still today. While some students try to appear knowledgeable and adsorbed in the seminars, when Stein’s texts are being analyzed, one can see by the look on their faces that they are either not interested in the topic, or the texts are so complex that they cannot wrap their minds around them. For years, students have asked themselves what the reason might be for such an interest in Gertrude Stein. There are two main hypotheses that justify this phenomenon. The first one is her influence on the development of English syntax. The second one is her personal life (an openly homosexual, eccentric, Jewish woman), which she wrote …show more content…
Gertrude Stein had been writing for about three decades and remained unknown until her autobiography was published. The few people, who knew her until then found her texts incomprehensible. The readers had to access language from a different perspective in order to understand the alterations in the words’ order and not everyone was open to this approach. This was the reason why she was turned down by most publishing houses and the few texts that were published ended up as commercial failures. In the 1930’s not everyone could afford to buy books and if they did, they at least expected to get some pleasure out of reading them. However, once Stein wrote her autobiography, she instantly gained the sympathy of many publishing houses and subsequently the readers’ because of the way she presented herself. The book then drew attention to her other writings because the readers thought that there might be a hidden meaning behind her ideas, which might explain her behavior. They believed they had finally “figured her out”. What people were not expecting was Stein’s resourcefulness in commenting her preview’s books. These subtly placed comments helped Stein’s readers understand her style and she became a high selling