Author Archives: Paraskevi Gkana

Opposites Attract

One of the passages that struck me while reading was the scene at the waiting area at the gynecologist’s office. “We liked sitting next to each other, I fair, she dark, I calm, she anxious, I likable, she malicious, the two of us opposite and united” (157).

I still can’t process the fact that Elena calls Lila “malicious”, after everything she’s done to help her and her daughters. It seems to me that Lenu has created this image of herself that she basically thinks she’s liked by everybody and she is so perfectly perfect and Lila is just a parasite, a parasite that is ruining her life, but she still wants her in it. It also makes no sense that Lenu refers to Lila as “anxious”, since she is always the one questioning her life choices and what she is going to do next with her children, her job, her life with Nino. It seems to me that Lila has everything under control- she’s expecting Enzo’s kid, she has a business with him, the people in the neighborhood like her, and the Solaras fear her. Lila’s only “problem”, in this case, would be Gennaro, who I assume doesn’t approve of her pregnancy. Anyhow, Lila has proved that she is a much more capable person than Lenu and even Lenu’s mother believes that Lila is a better person than her own daughter. Lenu, on the other hand, envies Lila’s life and accomplishments that she can’t say one good thing about her “friend”.

Meta-Post

Even though everybody’s posts were very interesting and nicely written, I chose to focus on the posts of 4 people.

Katherine talks about how Lenu writes about women and feminism, but when it comes down to helping and empowering other women(in this case Lila), she’s not having it. She emphasized the fact that Lenu’s “feminist role model” was Adele, her mother-in-law, who is not the best example of a feminist, either.

Irini also focused on Lenu’s feminism. She specifically mentioned Lenu’s internal conflict regarding love life, motherhood, and her job as a writer. Her quotes explain perfectly Lenu’s struggle to keep up with everything that is going on in her life, but to also follow her own advice. Even though she [Lenu] considers herself a feminist, she depends on a man, and can’t imagine her life without him.

Ariana is still talking about the females of the book, but her central theme was a little different. She talks about how Lenu is always blaming the people around her about all the bad things that are happening to her, instead of claiming responsibility for her own actions. Lila is trying to protect her friend from Nino because she’s been with him in the past and she knows how he is, but Elena just refuses to take her advice, probably because she thinks that Lila is jealous of her relationship with Nino.

Julie focused on the aspect of code-switching in the novel. She talks about the code-switching between Italian and dialect. We notice that Elena is able to use both Italian and dialect fluently, whereas Lila only uses standard Italian when she is around who are not part of the neighborhood- and even then, it does not come out very naturally- it’s like her words come out of a book she’s read. Elena on the other hand uses dialect when she is mad, feels threatened, or wants to sound dangerous.

From what we have read so far in the 4th volume, we can tell that Elena is focusing a lot on talking about herself and her personal life, and I hope the book becomes more interesting later on.

Nicola Lagioia Interview

One of the first things that interested me in this interview is actually concerning something that we have talked about in class so many times before, and that is “language“. “And then there was the dialect and there was Italian. The two languages referred to different communities, both jam-packed. What was normal in one wasn’t normal in the other. The bonds that you established in one language never had the same substance as those in the other. Customs varied, the rules of behavior, the traditions. And if you sought a middle ground, you would assume a false dialect that was a sort of trivialized Italian”. Language to me is always important. Since I chose Italian as my major, I want to know everything about the language. It’s fascinating how language and dialect play such an important role in the lives of Ferrante’s protagonists. Each one of them uses a different kind of Italian, whether that is the “standardized” form of it, or the Neapolitan dialect. We have noticed so many times that the characters code-switch almost all the time, depending on the environment they are found in, and of course the people they are referring to. It’s also extremely interesting that the book was written in Italian; but the HBO TV Show only used Italian when Elena (the narrator) was talking-the rest of the show was all in dialect. In English it is kind of hard to tell what is going on with language because even though we know that characters like Lenu, Lila, and Nino can use both “formal” Italian and dialect equally well, the parts that say “…said in dialect” or “…said in Italian” is very confusing. Another thing that I though is worth mentioning is the fact that she states that each form of Italian has its own customs and traditions and you shouldn’t mix them up. I would love to read the novels in Italian and make comparisons between Italian/dialect, the English translations, and the TV show we watched.

The Godless Daughter

“She shouted that the marriage was worthless if the priest didn’t say that it was valid. She shouted that if I didn’t get married before God I would never be a wife but only a whore…she would never be able to go out of the house because of the shame of having a godless daughter” (Ferrante 49).

This episode takes place when Lenuccia is having a conversation with her mother about getting married to Pietro as soon as possible. Lenu’s mother, whose name still remains unknown, goes crazy and starts yelling at her oldest daughter for not wanting to get married at an altar, without a priest present to validate her marriage. Elena mentions that her mother herself is not religious; but the real reason why she wants her to have a reception iss because of what the people in the neighborhood would think of her daughter if she didn’t have one. The mother is clearly not pleased with her daughter’s decision not to have a ceremony at a church, but at the city hall, instead. She shouts curses at Elena and even compares a woman who doesn’t get married at church a “whore”. The mother would be so ashamed of her daughter’s decision of not having a Catholic marriage that she wouldn’t even leave her house. It’s ridiculous and fascinating at the same time, how religion lies under almost everything that is going on around us. A mother that is not religious is trying to persuade her daughter, who is also not religious, to get married at church just so she doesn’t end up being “godless”-whatever that is supposed to mean. Elena says that Pietro and his sister, Mariarosa, are not baptized and they wouldn’t baptize their kids, either. For Elena religion is not important, and I’m guessing the same thing about her mother. It’s amazing, however, to see the point of view of this era’s society on a female who does not wish to get her marriage validated by a priest. Another thing I don’t understand (maybe because I have a different perspective and grow up during a different time period) is: why does one have to go to church or be involved in it in order to be near God? Why is one who doesn’t go to church or doesn’t get married there “godless”? I thought that faith was something one carries within. But I guess this is a different matter of discussion.

Names And Reputation

“I didn’t know who Airota the father was, but certainly my classmates became respectful again: I was invited to parties or dinner. At a certain point I even had the suspicion that they talked to me because I brought Pietro out with me, since he generally kept to himself, absorbed in his work” (Ferrante 407).

Lenuccia at this point starts talking about her new “friend”, Pietro Airota, who is also a student at the Normale. Airota is a very intelligent young man that knows how to behave around others and is also fond of Elena. When Elena first goes to university her classmates make fun of the way she dresses up and joke about her accent. When she starts dating Franco Mari (a wealthy boy) her classmates’ behavior changes and they start liking her. As soon as Franco fails an exam and is kicked out of the Normale, everybody starts harassing her once again. When they see that she is now going out with Pietro, the son of a very well-known university professor, she becomes relevant and respected again. This is proof that names play a very important role, especially in such communities. Even though Elena might not be actually liked and wanted, people around her are not showing any signs of that, just because she is dating the child of somebody that’s of great importance. Elena is clearly suspicious of their behavior; but she seems to like the attention of being around other wealthy and educated individuals.

“Lord of the Rings”

At some point, when Elena is invited to a house party by Professor Galiani, Lila accompanies her. Signora Caracci asks her husband, Stefano, to drive them to Galiani’s house, and Lenù sits in the back of the car, staring at the couple’s hands “And for the first time I was struck by the massive wedding rings on their hands, his and hers” (Ferrante 152). Lenù mentions the wedding rings moments before they enter the house- the place where they are going to be examined by Galiani, as well. “Professor Galiani spoke approvingly of long friendships, they’re important, an anchorage, generic phrases uttered as she stared at Lila, who responded self-consciously in monosyllables, and who, when she realized that the professor’s gaze had come to rest on the wedding ring, immediately covered it with her other hand” (Ferrante 155). This sentence, in my opinion, is both a matter of great discussion; but also an example of the famous run-on sentences that Warley mentioned in his article. Warley states that “The denial of logical cohesion, and the denial of historical narrative, often takes the form in Ferrante’s writing of a denunciation of art itself”. He believes that there is so much logic hidden behind all these illogical thoughts and that’s what makes Ferrante’s books hard to resist. In this case, we can see that Elena starts talking about Professor Galiani’s opinion on her long-term friendship with Lila, and immediately changes subject by referring to Galiani’s gaze on Lila’s wedding ring- alla in one, really long sentence. On the other hand, the ring here is really important. As soon as Galiani sees Lila’s ring, she asks her if she’s married and if she’s the same age as Elena. Lila seems embarrassed and ashamed of her marriage at such a young age, that’s why she wants to cover her ring-bearing finger. Elena keeps mentioning that people, including the Professor, did not want to talk to her friend because she was married. It is amazing, however, how a piece of jewelry can change people’s behavior towards somebody, and even making them unwanted. Although what’s interesting, is how Elena starts talking about Stefano’s and Lila’s wedding ring, and they later on become the reason why the guests at the party push Lila away, in a sense. Here, the ring is a symbol of imprisonment for Lila, and Galiani seems to disapprove of her decisions.

Be a man Ste’.

While reading the second book “The Story of a New Name”, we can still find traces of time-travelling. Elena keeps going back and forth in time, trying to explain the events that happened in the past as if they were happening right now. However, I do not find this time-travel that interesting. What intrigues me, is Elena’s point of view on the male body and how she perceives male “superiority”.

Lenù refers to the penis as “gross man flesh” (27); but also as something that she desires a lot. She is going out with Antonio, Melina’s son, and they are having all these intimate moments together, where Antonio is always the one receiving pleasure; but not her. She says “I delayed pulling out his sex; I knew that as soon as I did, he would forget about me” (26) and we can tell that Antonio was really “proud” to have a penis and felt like Elena had no needs or whatsoever. On the other hand, we can see that Antonio also depends on her because at some point, while the two of them are fighting, Antonio stops fighting because he thought that Elena wouldn’t want to please him and she “would deny him those few minutes of pleasure” (29).

Simone de Beauvoir in her book “The Second Sex” sets focus on how a male, even as a little boy, is full of himself for being born with a penis because by “having an organ that can be seen and grasped, he can at least partially identify with it” (282).

De Beauvoir says that a man “learns from an early age to take blows, to scorn pain, to keep back the tears. He undertakes, he invents, he dares, he challenges his own manhood” (284), and these are some of the traits we see through Lila’s husband, Stefano Caracci. During their honeymoon, Lila expresses her disgust towards Stefano and admits that she does not want him. Stefano is furious and says to himself “Be a man Ste” (41) and ends up beating up Lila, with the excuse that “she has to learn right away that she is the female and he is the male and therefore she has to obey” (41).

Lila sees herself as one of “Caracci’s possessions” (39) and even though she would often have bruised arms, swollen eyes and purple cheeks, nobody in the stradone would say anything because they thought that “there was someone who knew how to be a man” (45).

Elena does not seem to approve of Stefano’s behavior; but does not seem to detest it, either. She explains that “we had grown up thinking that a stranger must not touch us, but that our father, our boyfriend, and our husband could hit us when they like, out of love, to educate us, to reeducate us” (52). So even if she hates to see her friend in that condition, there is nothing she can do, because this is perceived as “normal” behavior from someone with a penis towards his “lifeless possession”.

Naples and Catholicism

Reading Benjamin’s essay alongside with Ferrante’s book helps one understand the book better, since Benjamin is discussing many things that he encountered while visiting Naples that Ferrante also mentions in her story. They both usually talk a lot about the Camorra and that is a part of people’s lives in Naples or how poverty is a major issue in the city; but especially in the outskirts of it. One thing that I thought was “against” Benjamin’s observations religion.

Walter Benjamin specifically wrote: “In this city, does Catholicism strive to reassert itself in every situation. Should it disappear from the face of the Earth, its last foothold would perhaps not be Rome, but Naples.” (Benjamin, 167). This quote clearly indicates that the inhabitants of Naples take religion, Catholicism to be precise, very seriously. To them, church is extremely important and they value it a lot.

Since Ferrante’s story takes place in Naples, one would expect to read quite a lot about Catholicism and how important it is for the people of the stradone. However, Ferrante hasn’t been talking about religion or her religious beliefs throughout the novel. At some point, Lenù says: “The fact that I, who had successfully completed a theological correspondence course, raised my hand and said that the human condition was so obviously exposed to the blind fury of chance that to trust in a God, a Jesus, the Holy Spirit- this last a completely superfluous entity, it was there only to make up a trinity, notoriously nobler than the mere binomial father-son-was the same thing as collecting trading cards while the city burns in the fires of hell”(Ferrante, 296).

The Holy Trinity really confused Lenù- she had no idea why the Holy Spirit was essential in any way, and why believing in a God was beneficial. She basically referred to “faith” as something with completely no importance or use- just like the trading cards in the middle of a burning city. To Lenù, Catholicism basically means nothing. Her life does not depend on it. Even when she is talking about the city, she has not been talking about churches or icons inside the houses, which means that to her, they are invisible and without meaning. Benjamin is saying how Naples could even be the center of Catholicism, and then Lenù could not care less about it.

“Catcalling” and men’s behavior towards women

“On the street the men looked at all of us, pretty, less pretty, ugly, and not so much the youths as the grown men. It was like than in the neighborhood and outside of it, and Ada, Carmela, and I myself-especially after the incident with the Solaras-had learned instinctively to lower our eyes, pretend not to hear the obscenities they directed at us, and keep going”(pg. 145).

I decided to choose this specific piece from the book for this week’s assignment, since I can relate to it, and I am sure other women may relate, as well. Taking into consideration the region and the time period, women were not exactly admired when it came down to skills or such matters. Throughout the first book, we encounter several occasions where men are admiring the womanly figures and the overall physical appearance of the female characters. To me, it always seems unfair and unjust, not to be able to “fight back” when men are just staring at you; but having to let go and remain silent, instead. The girls in that case were accompanied by either their brothers or other male friends, and the older men were still staring at the teenage girls and kept trying to get their attention with their words. This scenario hasn’t always been an issue and is still an issue today. I am not saying that being nice and complimenting a woman is not acceptable, as long as it is done with respect. Most of the time, the comments made by men are not even close to respectful, which results in women wanting to disappear immediately. On the other hand, Lenu is always commenting on the boys’ appearance and how Nino Sarratore is the most beautiful boy she’s ever seen, or how she really likes Marcello; but nobody would really consider these comments as offensive, since they come from an “innocent girl’s” mind, and they don’t necessarily mean to be disrespectful towards the boys addressed here. So, I guess we have a double-standard.

The theme of fear and violence

“Our world was like that, full of words that killed: croup, tetanus, typhus, gas, war, lathe, rubble, work, bombardment, bomb, tuberculosis, infection. With these words and those years I bring back the many fears that accompanied me all my life” (pg. 33)

“I feel no nostalgia for our childhood: it was full of violence” (pg. 37)

These words might be Ferrante’s words while being inside the protagonist’s (Elena’s) mind; but we can’t ignore the fact that those were a six-year-old’s thoughts on life in Naples. Throughout the novel, there are evident signs of violence, mistreatment, illness, injuries, and an overall chaos that’s taking place in the small neighborhood. Those children grew up seeing blood on the streets, watching their relatives die in front of them; either by an illness that they couldn’t battle against, the cruel that’s war, but even from another neighbor, just because they didn’t have enough money to pay them back, or they didn’t have enough power to stand against them. The narrator mentions all these things as if they were something completely normal-something that little kids should definitely be aware of. I’m not quite sure if things were the same in my village in Greece(or any other village or city) during the same time period, or if this is is something that was going on just in Napoli. It seems as if violence and fear are what gave power to some, in order to take over the poor neighborhood and gain dominance. It is so cruel that children of that age would sit around and play with their toys while people were fighting, shooting each other, and dying next to them. The innocence of those kids had vanished completely.