| dc.description.abstract | This thesis explores the narrative strategies of Lydia Davis’s short fiction. Based on close readings from The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis and Can’t and Won’t, I argue that Davis’s textual practice has feminist significance relating to both the form and content of her stories. First, the close readings demonstrate that putting emotions in order, narrative disclosure, failed or reverse epiphanies, and acute attention to language are the trademarks of Davis’s original style. Based on Ellen G. Friedman’s and Miriam Fuchs’s work on the subversive narrative, Davis’s literary innovation conforms to the feminist notion of breaking patriarchal structures in literature. In the attempt to find closure, the story becomes a medium for reconciliation and growth. Davis carves out a fictional landscape where mystery and the inexplicable reigns. Within this landscape, she addresses feminist issues such as the mother’s role, miscommunication and asexuality. Revealing how motherhood is both a source of oppression and fascination, Davis contributes to a more nuanced perception of motherhood in literature. The findings add new dimensions the work of previous researchers, who tend to assume that feminist experimental writers combine radical feminist ideas and formal innovation. Instead, Davis challenges the way we read and write stories, spreading awareness about nonlinear storytelling and inequality for women in everyday life. Based on this observation, there is reason to claim that Lydia Davis innovates the short story as a feminist battleground. | eng |