Gertrude Stein and the War She Saw

Gertrude Stein’s conservative politics and her decision to remain in France during World War II have been much discussed, and her wartime texts have been criticized for a cryptic style that insufficiently responds to its moment. In considering these issues, this chapter expands the book’s central claim that indirection, self-interference, and ethical self-scrutiny are civilian strategies for writing about war from a distance. In her genre-mixing alternative to war reportage, Wars I Have Seen, Stein records dates, statistics, and oral testimony. Yet the text also contains reverse epiphanies: lyric outbursts within the prose that signal and dwell on moments of fear. Rather than indicative revelation, reverse epiphanies, or éclats, contain disturbing incidents and rein in the perception of threat. This chapter contends that Stein’s use of reverse epiphanies, understatement, and meta-rhetoric was inflected by her understanding of French cultural restraint, which she aimed to emulate while writing about life under occupation.