“Once, in Childhood”: Narrative Women Poets, Ars Poeticas, & Girlhood Josie Price Project Mentor(s): Maya Jewell Zeller, MFA This presentation examines three first-person narrative poems written by American women of successive generations (born 1911, 1942, and 1970/71), arguing that the pieces may be read simultaneously as ars poeticas , feminist texts, and accounts of childhood artistic awakening. Through comparative analysis, the study explores how each poem renders a moment of emerging self-consciousness: an awakening not only to individual identity, but also to artistic calling and to one’s position--as a child and as a girl-- within a structurally patriarchal world. Despite differences in historical context and narrative perspective, the poems collectively construct an intergenerational dialogue about the self-discovery of voice and creative identity. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation (May 20, 9:30am–5:00pm) Keywords: poetry, ars poetica, poem, feminist, childhood SOURCE Form ID: 255 In the early twentieth century, modernist writers experimented with form, language, and meaning in order to challenge conventional literary structures. Gertrude Stein was one of the most innovative modernists; however, she extended her linguistic and formal experimentation beyond adult literature into works written for children. Her 1939 book The World Is Round demonstrates how modernist techniques could be adapted to children’s literature while still addressing complex philosophical and aesthetic concerns. Throughout the young protagonist’s journey, Rose grapples with identity, creativity, and belonging. Stein reimagines the traditional literary hero and proposes a distinctly modernist alternative: an introspective, artistic child whose development is shaped by language and self-expression rather than conquest or mastery. This paper argues that despite The World Is Round being written for children, it should be read as a modernist text due to its inclusion of linguistic experimentation, subtle questioning of gender norms, and exploration of existential uncertainty. Stein’s repetitive syntax, rhythmic prose, and playful manipulation of language foreground the shifting narrative authority toward the child protagonist and vicariously to the child audience. Consequently, Stein grants Rose a form of narrative and imaginative agency that disrupts the hierarchical relationship between adult author, and child reader. By centering a young girl as both creative subject and modernist hero, Stein reconfigures the Language, Identity, and the Modernist Child in Gertude Stein’s The World Is Round Rachel Riffel* Project Mentor(s): Christopher Schedler, PhD possibilities of children’s literature protagonists and the integration of literary themes. Ultimately, The World Is Round reveals how modernist aesthetics can reshape narratives of childhood, transforming the child from passive recipient of instruction into an active participant in meaning-making. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation (May 20, 9:30am–5:00pm) Keywords: Modernism, Children’s Literature, Gender Identity, Linguistic Experimentation SOURCE Form ID: 15
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