This thesis reopens the question of subject/object relations in the works of Gertrude Stein, to argue that the fetishisms theorised by Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and later Walter Benjamin and Michael Taussig, and problematised by feminist critics such as Elizabeth Grosz, are central to the structure of those relations. My contribution to Stein scholarship is twofold, and is reflected in the division of my thesis into Part One and Part Two. Part One of this thesis establishes a model for reading the interconnections between subjects and objects in Stein???s work; it identifies a tension between two related yet different structures. The first is a fetishistic relation of subjects to objects, associated by Stein with materiality and nineteenth-century Europe, and the identity categories of the ???genius??? and the ???collector???. The second is a ???new??? figuration of late modernity in which the processual and tacility are central. This latter is associated by Stein with America and the twentieth century, and was a structure that she, along with other modernist artists, was developing. Further, Part One shows how these competing structures of subject/object relations hinge on Stein???s problematic formulations of self, nation, and artistic production. Part Two uses the model established in Part One to examine the detailed playing-out of the tensions and dilemmas of subject/object relations within several major Stein texts. First considered is the category of the object as it is constructed in Tender Buttons, and second the category of the subject as it is represented in the nexus of those competing structures in The Making of Americans and ???Melanctha???. The readings of Part Two engage with the major strands of Stein criticism of materiality, sexuality, and language in Tender Buttons, Stein???s famous study of objects. The critical areas engaged with in her biggest and most controversial texts respectively ??? The Making of Americans and ???Melanctha??? ??? include typology, ???genius???, and Stein???s methodologies of writing such as repetition/iteration, intersubjectivity, and ???daily living???. This thesis contends that the dilemma of subject/object relations identified and examined in detail is never resolved, indeed, its ongoing reverberations are productive up until and including her final work.

Throughout history, people have made or acquired vessels from which to sip their favourite beverage. In the contemporary domestic setting, households frequently accumulate multiples of the same type of object in numbers that are considerably greater than is necessary and practical for use alone. Of these many objects there are often individual pieces that have special significance for the owner or user. Some are so valued that they may even be removed and set aside because of their perceived importance. The research was initiated by a previous study of tea drinking vessels coupled with a desire, as an object maker and collector, to find out why people have special items that they designate as personally important. The aim was to identify how significance could be recognised in specific objects and whether the notion that a group of features used to gauge such objects could be conveyed into studio based work. The research outcomes are evidenced in a text-based document (which articulates the theoretical and empirical elements of the enquiry) and a body of creative studio work developed in response to aspects of the investigation. The document encompasses two components of the study. The first references material from the fields of museum and cultural studies, pivotal in focusing the enquiry. This contributed to the compilation of a general and speculative inventory of qualities that might pertain to objects deemed ???significant???. During these early investigations it became evident that a more in depth and contemporary analysis of significant drinking vessels, their owners and/or users was required. A Survey Questionnaire regarding personal use and special drinking vessels preceded a series of Interviews with a selected group of Australia curators, artists, academics and collectors who discussed and analysed their association with a personally significant drinking vessel. Subsequently, the content of these interviews became central to the focus of the research and outcomes. The research isolates a number of attributes that are commonly identified in objects that, whatever their condition, are deemed ???significant???. These describe the maker, usage, ownership, association and historical context. The perceived value or worth of the object for its owner, is recognised as a consequence of significance and declares the object as distinctive. This outcome is clearly validated by the interviews. The studio work develops from the fusion of personal narrative that has been enhanced by findings of the research. In particular, it references the cherished object, most especially those pieces that have been retained despite the ravages of time and use. The resulting work was exhibited as Trace Elements ??? Marking Time: Significance, the Vessel and the Domestic at Kudos Gallery, Paddington in April 2004.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Zürich, 1973. / Includes bibliographical references (p. x-xv).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1990. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 25).

Akademisk avhandling--Lund. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement, inserted. Includes index. Bibliography: p. [151]-157.

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Wheaton College, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-66).

Inaug.-Diss.--Munich. / Vita. "Die Schrift erscheint auch als Jahresaugabe 1958 des Vereins für C̀hristliche Kunst' in München." Bibliography: p. [7-8].

Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Akademisk avhandling--Lund. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement, inserted. Includes index. Bibliography: p. [151]-157.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Washington State University, May 2010. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 7, 2010). "Department of Fine Arts."