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This study introduces the concept of "postmodern avant-garde" drama, a term that the researcher has coined to characterize the diverse aspects of postmodernism expressed in Gertrude Stein´s avant- garde drama. There are three unifying principles that characterize "the postmodern avant-garde" drama: the labyrinthine discourse, language- and theory-oriented play writing, and gender/genre trouble. This dissertation attempts to prove that all the unifying elements of "the postmodern avant- garde" pervade nearly all of Stein´s works. To achieve these objectives, seven plays have been selected among Stein´s plays since they are relevant to the topic of this study. The selected plays for this study are: What Happened. A Five Act Play (1913), Ladies´ Voices. Curtain Raiser (1916), Circular play (1920), Four Saints in Three Acts (1927), They Must. Be Wedded. To Their Wife (1931), A Play Called Not and Now (1936), and Listen to Me (1936). The study is divided into an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion.

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Wael M. As-Sawi was born in Egypt on October 8,1974. He received his M.A. from Cairo University, in January 2002. The title of his M.A Thesis is "Bernard Shaw´s Utopian Vision in Theory and Practice in Selected Plays". Currently he works as an assistant professor of English Literary Criticism at Fayoum University and Imam University.

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