Proust’s Traces on Dorothy Richardson. Involuntary Memory and Metaphors

• Main Author: María Francisca Llantada Díaz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2009-11-01
• Series: Études Britanniques Contemporaines
• Subjects: Dorothy Richardson; Pilgrimage; Proust; garden; introspection; involuntary memory
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/4131

This article explores the ways in which Proust’s roman-fleuve has influenced Dorothy Richardson’s. Firstly, the presence of Proustian involuntary memory in Pilgrimage is contrasted with other cases where memories are presented in an unmediated way. Secondly, the traces of Proustian metaphors and motifs in Dorothy Richardson’s work are exposed and commented on. In both novels, the inner garden and trees are closely related to the protagonists’ selves and also to the creativity linked to writing. Music establishes patterns that link together the different volumes and enables the protagonists to descend to their inner selves in order to become writers. This downward introspective journey, which is the germ of literary creation, can be considered the most important motif in Proust’s and Richardson’s novels, and it is present in all the other motifs analysed in this article. Moreover, in both Proust’s and Richardson’s works, the narrative stops when the protagonists find their vocation to be writers.