The article shows the boundaries and prospects of biographical approach to the study of the work of the American writer and playwright Gertrude Stein (1874–1946). Studies over the years, mainly by American academics, provided the base for placing Stein’s work into the context of metaphysical searches of the first half of the twentieth century. The close connection of her style with metaphysical, and factually religious, context is revealed, and the “meditation” in the individual understanding of Stein turns to be a compositional principle in her “landscape theater”.
American literature of the twentieth century; modernism; American avant-garde theater; Gertrude Stein; biographical approach; metaphysics in literature and theater; “landscape theater”.