SOURCE: "Gertrude Stein: The Pattern Moves, the Woman Behind Shakes It," in Women's Studies, Vol. 13, Nos. 1 and 2, 1986, pp. 33-47.

In the following essay, Mizejewski contrasts Stein's perceptions of self in Tender Buttons with examples of how feminist writers of her era treated the theme of female self-perception.

Since Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons was published in 1914, its colorful chunks of language and imagery have been shaken in the kaleidoscopes of a dozen critical modes to produce a myriad of readings, designs, and explanations. The multitude of critical approaches attests to its brilliance and obscurity at once: readers presented with this wild, semi-verbless appraisal of objects, food, and rooms are justifiably intimidated but also challenged to find the "key" to a work in which "A Piece of Coffee" is "More of a double. A place in no new table," and in which "Red Roses" are "Cool red rose and a...