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This dissertation explores the connections that exist between Gertrude Steins late nineteenth-century psychological studies at Harvard University, her fin-de-sicle brain research at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, and her early twentieth-century cubist writings. This study is important to neuraesthetic researchers, because it appears that Stein produced a secret series of cubist brain maps from approximately 1912 to 1935, and then published her first explicit brain map in _The Geographical History of America or the Relation of Human Nature to the Human Mind_, in 1936. The cubist brain maps that Stein produced during this period can be conceptualized as evolving, neuraesthetic writing practices that reflect her complex, scientific insights and her varied, artistic associations. One of the primary differences between Steins cubist writings and those of her literary peers is that she deploys the cubist painting strategies of Pablo Picasso, for the purpose of portraying the human central nervous system. In addition to exploring the scientific meanings of Steins multidimensional, performative and introspective cubist puns, my study examines how Stein uses color in her cubist writings, as a means of anticipating the visual effects of future scientific discoveries and connectivity maps, such as the Brainbow system, which uses the fluorescent protein from the jellyfish Aequorea Victoria to label the central nervous systems of genetically modified mice with distinguishable colors. Also, this project examines how Stein uses color words and other simple devices from the English language to illustrate the brains cellular structures, neural networks and neuroanatomical features. This studys primary aim is to explore how Steins dissociative writings function within western culture as neuraesthetic modes of masterpiece creation, brain representation and consciousness translation. Through the serial production of cubist brain maps, Stein posed important questions about the modern science of the reading brain. By developing allegorical methods of brain representation, Stein contributes to the western practice of neuroesthetics by foregrounding the role that creative writing plays in the production of imaginary, laboratory practices and imaginative, brain imaging technologies.

Tout visage est structuré selon un ordre symétrique. La thèse explore les conséquences de cette spécificité formelle du visage sur la construction du portrait dans le contexte spécifique de la Renaissance. Elle débute par une remise en cause de l’approche neuropsychologique qui fait de la dissymétrie et de la partition du visage dans le portrait la simple expression d’un donné physionomique. À travers une réflexion autour de la symétrie et de la dissymétrie dans l’ordre de la représentation, notre recherche rend compte de l’intérêt de ces catégories esthétiques pour la compréhension des enjeux formels et philosophiques propres à la construction du portrait. Elle révèle également la richesse et la complexité des significations allouées à la symétrie et à la dissymétrie dans le cosmos culturel de la Renaissance, celles-ci allant parfois à contre-courant de nos représentations contemporaines. Une dernière partie de cette recherche est consacrée au symbolisme théologique séculaire distinguant entre le côté droit et le côté gauche du visage, un côté tourné vers le céleste, l’autre vers le terrestre, et à son influence sur l’art du portrait. La démonstration est rythmée par diverses études de cas, parmi lesquelles des analyses approfondies de portrait peints par Jan Van Eyck, Giovanni Bellini, Raphaël et Albrecht Dürer. / Every face is structured in a symmetrical order. This research paper explores the consequences of this formal specificity on the construction of the portrait in the particular context of the European Renaissance. It starts with a critique of the neuropsychological approach that makes the asymmetry and the distinction between the two sides of the face in the portrait the mere expression of a particular physiognomy. Through a reflection on the aesthetic categories of symmetry and asymmetry in the order of representation, the research demonstrates the interest of these concepts for the understanding of the formal and philosophical issues specific to the construction of portraits. It also reveals the richness and complexity of meanings assigned to symmetry and asymmetry in the cultural cosmos of the Renaissance, these ones sometimes going against the grain of contemporary representations. The final section is devoted to the secular theological symbolism distinguishing between the right side and the left side of the face, one side turned to the heavenly, the other to the earthly, and the resulting influence on the art of portraiture. The demonstration is punctuated by various case studies, including an in-depth analysis of portraits painted by Jan Van Eyck, Giovanni Bellini, Raphael and Albrecht Dürer.