本篇論文是在討論要葛楚德、史坦茵之「鼓舉的肚腹」詩中如何創造出三種截然不同的視覺、聽覺、觸覺感知來吸引讀者，也同時揭露詩中所蘊涵的女同性戀意義。筆者舉出了一種新的閱讀觀點。首先先從探討一群平凡無奇的代名詞所具有的特性來解讀這篇長詩。大多數研究葛楚德、史坦茵文學的評論家傾向只把他們的焦點放在「鼓舉的肚腹」這個詞彙如何產生女同性戀意義。但事實上這群代名詞也值得我們深入探討，因為它們能與「鼓舉的肚腹」這個詞彙相互指涉，所以讀者能透過它們逐次地來找到各種各樣流動的意義。因此筆者在本篇論文中把「鼓舉的肚腹」這個詞彙簡稱為是「多元意義的LB符號」(LB　signifier)。因著這個發現，筆者想要說明史坦茵的這群代名詞與重複出現的LB符號能在她詩中所設計的三套語法結構中生產出女同性戀意義的原委。三套語法結構也就是圖案對位結構(the visual patterning system of coordination )、語言運作結構 (the performative mechanism of “general iterability”)、及對話式的傳聲結構(the aural mechanism of dialogue)。 由於女同性戀意義持續地在詩中浮現，筆者推論史坦茵偏好賦予這群代名詞及LB符號女性的性別認同，並企圖在詩中刻劃出一個女同性戀的世界。最後本文會解釋三種懸殊的視覺、聽覺、觸覺感知是如何跟隨著女同性戀意義產生的過程中依次地在詩中浮現出來。當女同性戀感知觸動了讀者的知覺及情感上的認同，他們也慢慢地相信所有女同性戀意義所形塑出來的女同性戀世界是真實存在的。

My thesis will focus on how Gertrude Stein’s poem, “Lifting Belly,” releases
three distinctive sensations of visuality, sound, and touch to involve readers and reveals
lesbian meanings in the poetic context. I will propose a new reading perspective to
interpret Stein’s “Lifting Belly”—that is, to understand the poetic content from first
exploring the functions of the pronouns in banal linguistic forms that we always
overlook. Many Stein critics have a tendency to only emphasize how this phrase, “lifting
belly,” produces lesbian meanings in this poem. However, the pronouns are actually
worth of our careful scrutiny because their identification with this phrase can direct us to
track down various and shifting meanings for this phrase in a gradual process. Hence, in
my thesis I will call this phrase as a polyvalent LB signifier. With both the pronouns I
bring into my discussion and repeated LB signifiers, I will secondly explain how both
them are appropriated by Stein to produce lesbian meanings within three operative
mechanisms—the visual patterning system of coordination, the performative mechanism
of “general iterability” (Culler 100), and the aural mechanism of dialogue—structured in
this poem. Along with the process of my investigation, lesbian elements will be revealed
sequentially to suggest Stein’s preference in privileging female gendering for both the
used pronouns and LB signifiers and her political purpose to present a lesbian world in
this poem, “Lifting Belly.” Finally, I will display how three diverse sensations of
visuality, sound, and touch are released along with the lesbian elements that are signified
in these three mechanisms. While lesbian sensations provoke readers into a perceptible
and emotional engagement into this poem, readers are drawn to believe in the lesbian
world constituted by all the lesbian elements.

Benstock, Shari. “Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas: Rue de Fleurus,” in Women of the
Left Bank. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987.
Bridgman, Richard. Gertrude Stein in Pieces. NY: Oxford UP, 1970.
Chessman, Harriet Scott. The Public is Invited to Dance: Representation, the Body, and
Dialogue in Gertrude Stein. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1989.
Culler, Jonathan. “Performative Language.” Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.
Oxford; New York: Oxford UP, 1997.
Engelbrecht, Penelope J. “Lifting Belly is a Language: the Postmodern Lesbian Subject.”
Feminist Studies Spring90, 16.1 (1990): 30 pp. 27 January 2006.
Holbrook, Susan. “Lifting Bellies, Filling Petunias, and Making Meanings through the
Trans-Poetics.” American Literature Vol.71, No. 4, December 1999: 751-771. 27
January 2006.
Isaak, Jo Anna. “Gertrude Stein: The Revolutionary Power of a Woman’s Laughter.” The
Ruin of Representation in Modernist Art and Texts. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI
Research Press, 1986.
Stein, Gertrude. “Lifting Belly.” Bee Time Vine and Other Pieces 1913-1927, volume 3
of Unpublished Works of Gertrude Stein. Introd. by Virgil Thomson. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1953.
Stimpson, Catharine R. “The Somograms of Gertrude Stein.” Poetics Today Vol. 6, No.
½ (1985): 67-80. 9 March 2006 <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0333-
5372%281985%296%3A1%2F2%3C67%3ATSOGS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X>.