“The Difference” of Objects “Is Spreading”: A Non‐Anthropocentric Reading of Tender Buttons

ABSTRACT This article discusses the nonreferentiality of both language and the object in Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons through an analysis of “Book.” a section of the chapter “Objects.” While the inaccessibility of Tender Buttons is well known due to Stein's linguistic experimentalism, the objects presented as section titles also challenge conventional perceptions of the “object” by encompassing non‐material and living entities. These title‐objects remain largely obscure, as they are partially described but simultaneously left largely undescribed throughout the text. At the same time, other objects continue to appear with a similar kind of inaccessibility, and consequently the text remains elusive despite the scholarly attention it has received since its publication in 1914. Tender Buttons thus suggests that language cannot be entirely controlled, nor can objects be fully possessed from an anthropocentric perspective. In this regard, a recognition of strangeness when encountering objects in the text may be viewed as a step toward perceiving a lesser‐known aspect of reality in which, to modify Stein's manifesto, “the difference” of objects “is spreading.”