Scholar's Lecture 2011-2012
Sharing and Owning: Gertrude Stein’s Collaborative Writing
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM EST
Johnson Center, Room D
Please join Women and Gender Studies for the 2011-2012 Scholar's Lecture. The evening will start with a dinner at 6 pm followed by a lecture at 7:30. This year's lecture, given by Dr. Devon Hodges, Professor of English and Cultural Studies, is "Sharing and Owning: Gertrude Stein's Collaborative Writing."
This talk will explore one of the many aspects of Gertrude Stein's collaborative work: her collaborative writing, including both intertextual collaboration (the influence of model memoirs by women on her best-seller, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas) and the more intimate influence of Alice Toklac, her long-time partner, on Stein's compositional practices. While Stein proclaimed, "I'm always wanting to collaborate with some one" (Everybody's Autobiography), she wrote elsewhere, "I know that writing belongs to me" ("And Now"). How to explain this tension between Stein's practice of collaboration, which seems so open and democratic, and her desire to own a privileged domain: writing? Do Stein's collaborations undermine her claims to be a singular writer, a "genius"? Complex and contradictory, Stein's work provides a rich subject for exploration. In fact, "Seeing Gertrude Stein," a wonderful exhibition now in Ssan Francisco and opening in mid-October at the National Portrait Gallery, focuses on the visual Stein, on how she constructed her image as well as her collaborations with painters and composers.
Hosted by Women and Gender Studies.
