Gertrude Stein's "The Making of Americans": Repetition and the Emergence of Modernism (review)

In Axel’s Castle (1931), the earliest critical assessment of Gertrude Stein’s self-proclaimed masterpiece, The Making of Americans, Edmund Wilson wrote, “I confess that I have not read this book all through, and I do not know whether it is possible to do so.” Few other works would inspire their critics to brag of such laxity and to expect indulgence on the part of their readers. Though modernism contains many monumental and monumentally demanding works (for example, Joyce’s Ulysses and Proust’s A la Recherche du temps perdu, which Stein thought were less revolutionary), it is safe to say that The Making of Americans remains the least read and studied. Since its publication by Robert McAlmon’s Contact Press in 1925, or even Random House’s less intimidating abridged version in the thirties, the novel has garnered a handful of articles and book chapters but no full-length study—until now.

Considering Stein’s place in the development of modernism, one could see George Moore’s brave attempt to explain what Stein was up to in The Making of Americans as long overdue. The fact, however, that it is so long overdue says that we still excuse the neglect of Stein’s masterwork. Unfortunately, Moore’s book is unlikely to excite much new interest. While he does make some worthwhile points, particularly on the psychological bases of Stein’s notions of language, his work is more a distillation and expansion of earlier views of the book than a radical reshaping of our understanding of it.

As he examines in turn each of the main characters and sections of the novel, Moore shows how Stein initially saw repeated patterns of speech as expressions of character, but, as her writing progressed, she rethought such idealist notions of character (derived from Weininger) and focused on repetition as a means of reinventing narration and fictional representation and language itself. Earlier critics have recognized this pattern, but Moore makes a contribution to our understanding of the novel by bringing to bear on Stein’s use of repetition selective aspects of Derrida, Lacan, and Deleuze.

Moore’s decision to pattern his study after The Making of American’s organization is perhaps inevitable—if uninventive—considering the developmental focus of his study. However, since Moore attends so closely to Stein’s shifting conception of the novel over the long course of its composition (1902–1911), some new work on the manuscript evidence would have been valuable. Manuscript evidence could have also proven useful in exploring the connections with Stein’s other works, as he does most notably with Tender Buttons. While Moore shows the importance of connecting these works to Making, he fails to advance his argument beyond that point.

Moore’s prose is serviceable and his arguments clear. However, a glaring gaff occurs in the numbering of the notes, which is continuous throughout the entire book but noncontinuous in the endnotes, where the numbering starts over again with each chapter. This lack of copyediting presents readers with an almost insurmountable obstacle.

Though Moore’s subtitle implies a somewhat more widely ranging study than his book ultimately delivers, it is perhaps enough that he has finally begun the process of giving Stein’s masterpiece its due.