Lydia Davis’ Rewritings of Proust

Abstract

Drawing on Moraru's and Lefevere's concepts of rewriting, this article analyses how Lydia Davis rewrites Proust, first as an author in her novel The End of the Story and secondly as a translator in her rendering of Du côté de chez Swann. Davis has acknowledged Proust's influence on her novel, which shows thematic and structural similarities to Proust's novel, but at the same time offers a rewriting of it through a questioning of narrative possibility and through Proustian elements such as memory. Davis’ translation is a rewriting of Proust in English, which seeks self-consciously to create a different representation from previous translations. The dividing line between authorial and translational rewriting is blurred in Davis’ work, since characteristics of her original work can be seen in her translation, which remains, however, functional as a translation.