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Performing mindblindness: Gertrude Stein's autistic ethos of modernism

2012; Routledge; Volume: 21; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09589236.2012.661567

1465-3869

Nancy Bombaci,

Modernist Literature and Criticism

Abstract Often regarded as a 'loose cannon' within the modernist canon, Gertrude Stein evolved a style of writing that resembles autistic speech patterns and conveys modes of perception which resemble autistic thinking. Through her literary experiments, Stein explores the relationship of modernist abstraction and hermeticism to cultural stereotypes regarding male and female intelligence, as well as their elitist connection to high cultural capital. When Stein exaggerates these hermetic writing techniques, she criticizes the high modernist tendency to glorify male genius and marginalize women artists and intellectuals. When Stein creates a literary style that deliberately problematizes the reader's process of interpretation, she performs as a mind that is oblivious to linguistic and social conventions. By energetically imposing this idiosyncratic use of language, Stein promotes what may, in effect, be termed an autistic ethos of modernism. Keywords: Gertrude Steinhigh functioning autismAsperger's Syndromeintroversion The making of Americans Tender buttons 'Patriarchal poetry'ecriture femininephallogocentrismgenius Notes 1. I would like to thank Nicole Karafyllis for offering her invaluable knowledge regarding the early twentieth century research on autism and schizophrenia. She provided this information in an email message dated 10 September 2007. 2. Fitzgerald (Citation2005) makes this case in The genesis of creativity: Asperger's Syndrome and the arts. 3. James Mellow comments that the young Stein led 'an interior and introspective adolescence' (1974, p. 42). Similarly, Linda Wagner-Martin states that both Gertrude and her older brother Leo displayed a penchant for studying and solitary pastimes such as visiting museums and libraries (1995, p. 19). 4. Susan Folstein and Susan Santangelo explain that 'Individuals with BAP [broader autistic phenotype] generally lack the markedly restricted interests or striking difficulties of getting along in the workplace of people with [Asperger's Syndrome]' (cited in Paradiz Citation2002, p. 86). Possibly displaying a broader autistic phenotype, Leo states, 'My lack of interest in people makes it difficult for me to remember them, grotesquely so' (Stein Citation1950, p. 191). 5. Most recently, these stereotypes were set forth more crudely by the former Harvard president Larry Summers in his January 2005 comment that men may have more natural ability for the highest levels of math and science than women (cited in Ripley Citation2001, p. 51). Karafyllis also provides a discussion of Summers's comment (2008, p. 306). 6. In several letters to friends of his where Leo condemns his sister's literary experiments, some of his 'rants' are infused with sexist overtones regarding women's intellectual abilities. In a letter to Mabel Weeks, for example, he states that Gertrude, who is 'incapable of making an intelligent generalization', has a poor facility for abstract thought, an accusation often made by those who insist on viewing women as concrete thinkers (Stein Citation1950, p. 154). In a telling fragment from his autobiography, Leo admits that when he was a schoolboy, he felt intense envy towards a classmate named 'Anna' whose high academic achievements made clear her 'abnormally high I.Q.' (Stein Citation1950, p. 199). 7. Mellow makes clear that while Stein's relationship with other modernists was cordial, she frequently expressed a desire to compete with them, especially Joyce, whom she regarded as her 'principle rival' (1974, p. 300). 8. As critics continue to link the emergence of modernist writing to the development of early twentieth century psychology, a clearer distinction needs to be made between 'schizophrenic' and 'autistic' expressions of modernism. The limits of this article encompass mainly the autistic qualities of Stein's work in relation to a larger modernist tradition that associates radical forms of introversion with dazzling intellectual insight and an idealized masculine mind. 9. Tischler discusses Stein's relation to parodies of modernism (Citation2003, pp. 14–17). 10. Dekoven argues that Stein de-emphasizes 'anterior content' or 'referential meaning' in her work (1983, pp. 11–12). Perloff suggests that Stein's visual and spatial approach to writing undermines conventional notions of coherence and character development (Citation1981, p. 91). Meyer states that Stein developed a notion of literary organicism that challenged more conventional notions of organic literary structure (Citation2001, p. 106). 11. Ruddick defines this Jamesian ideal as 'the mental rigidity that filters out the swarm of sensation' (1991, p. 69). Thus the individual capable of selective attention can achieve a high level of mental focus through an exertion of will. 12. Asperger emphasizes that during his time, research on autism and Asperger's Syndrome, in contrast, was starting to become more developmental in focus. Uta Frith comments, 'The remark that introversion may be the same as autism is odd but also fascinating in view that Asperger considered himself, and was considered by others, to be a typical introvert' (Asperger Citation1992, p. 91). While the relationship between autism and introversion still has not been evaluated in depth through clinical studies, the similarities between the two still remain provocative. 13. Douglas (Citation1977) presents a thorough analysis of nineteenth century notions of feminine piety and virtue. 14. James Joyce explores quidditas in A portrait of the artist as a young man (Citation1916 [1966]), where Stephen Dedalus describes this quality in terms of heightened perception: The radiance of which he speaks is the scholastic quidditas, the whatness of a thing. This supreme quality is felt by the artist when the esthetic image is first conceived by the imagination. (p. 231) Stimpson discusses Stein's fascination with 'quiddities' in 'Gertrude Stein and the transposition of gender' (1986, p. 15). 15. Luce Irigaray describes the subject's potential to experience multiple subjectivities in The speculum of the other woman (Citation1985, p. 135). 16. Grandin states: Interviews with autistic adults who have good speech and are able to articulate their thought processes indicate that most of them also think in visual images. Most severely impaired people, who can speak but are unable to explain how they think, have highly associational thought patterns. Charles Hart, the author of Without Reason, a book about his autistic son and brother, sums up his son's thinking in one sentence: 'Ted's thought processes aren't logical, they're associational'. (1995, p. 25) 17. Paradiz defines perseveration as 'the rigid thought patterns or extreme focus that many autistics experience' (2002, p. 89). The more colloquial term for perseveration is 'stimming' (p. 104). 18. Cixous uses the term 'phallogocentric' in order to describe the Western conflation of reason with the phallus (1975, p. 315). Similarly, Stein's defiance of rational language in her later work is clearly based on her critique of the empowered masculine vision that Jay labels 'phallogocularcentrism' (1994, p. 528). 19. During the 1950's and the 1960's, psychoanalysts such as D.W. Winnicott, Margaret Mahler, and Bruno Bettelheim continued to develop Klein's theories of the maternal basis of autism (Nadesan, 95–99). One of the few contemporary psychologists whose approach to autism is firmly rooted in Kleinian psychoanalysis is Frances Tustin, although she "implicitly acknowledges that biological factors may lead autistic children to be particularly susceptible to the processes of psychopathology" (101). By the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, most psychoanalytic models of autism were replaced by clinical approaches rooted in biology and cognitive psychology (101–103). 20. When evaluating the pre-symbolic language associated with Stein, Chessman (Citation1989) uses Margaret Homans's revision of Nancy Chodorow's object relations theories. According to Homans, 'the daughter's prolonged pre-Oedipal attachment to the mother … causes her to become [uncertain] of her status within the symbolic order' and this 'appears from a Freudian and Lacanian perspective as the "daughter's tragedy"' (cited in Chessman Citation1989, p. 58). As Chessman explains, Homans revises this perspective by claiming that the daughter may not relinquish the pre-symbolic language associated with the pre-oedipal state. Instead, she is capable of both entering and evading the symbolic order (pp. 57–58).