“The Story of a New Name” depicts Lila and Lenu on distinct life paths. Lila is trapped in the role of a 1960s housewife, which “enclosed her in a sort of glass container” (Ferrante 57). She came to the realization that she is indeed her husband “Carracci’s possession” (Ferrante 39) and she must obey his sexual desires and submit to his will. This subordination is habitual for all of the housewives like Lila, for when she returns from her honeymoon with a black eye and bruises no one views the abuse as abnormal, especially her mother.
Despite her captivity in marriage, Lila is still a complex woman, different than the other women of the neighborhood. Lila is able to buy whatever she wants, whenever she wants, just by simply using her new last name. She is able to continue her friendship with Lenu, the one person who makes her happiest and truly completes her. Through Lenu, Lila is granted a look into life outside of the confines of her existence. Lenu is Lila’s ticket to the escape the two girls always longed for as children, therefore Lila continues to push Lenu to study and excel in her education.
Lila still knows how to manipulate others and despite not holding a physical strength, she holds a different rebellious power over men. Regardless of her role as a 1960s housewife, “Lila was Lila, not an ordinary girl of the neighborhood” (Ferrante, 52). Lila craves a life that only Lenu is able to acquire, while Lenu desperately wants to live her life through Lila, creating a balance and reciprocated need for dependency, which continues to be a staple of their friendship.
For this post I want to focus on Ferrante’s women, and in particular, Lenù and Lila. When they are young Lenù and Lila experience similar lives because they live in the same impoverished neighborhood in Naples. But as they grow older, Lenù and Lila pursue increasingly different lives. Lenù continues her studies while Lila adjusts to her new life as Mrs. Carracci. This difference is evident in this description of Lenù and Lila as they walk together in the neighborhood:
“Walking next to her I felt embarrassment and also a
sense of danger. It seemed to me that she was risking not only gossip but
ridicule, and that both reflected on me a sort of colorless but loyal puppy who
served as her escort. Everything about her—the hair, the earrings, the
close-fitting blouse, the tight skirt, the way she walked—was unsuitable for
the gray streets of the neighborhood” (Ferrante, 15, p.73).
In this section Lenù describes an important contrast. The contrast between herself and Lila in which she herself is “colorless” while Lila is “unsuitable for the gray streets of the neighborhood.” One could only conclude that Lenù seems to blend in with the gray neighborhood and Lila seems to stick out. Lenù continues to dress the part of the neighborhood in which she still resides while Lila, having become a Carracci, dresses in a wealthy manner. This is an important contrast to take note of because it really displays the dramatic split in the lives of these two friends. Lenù remains tied to the neighborhood and Lila has married her way out of it in a sense. It’s interesting to note how two girls growing up in the same neighborhood become so very different in the kind of lives they lead in the future. I think it’s pretty impressive how Ferrante is able to truly capture the nature of their two very different lives yet still make the interactions between the two realistic.
Pier Angeli with husband Vic Damone, St. Timothy’s Church, Los Angeles, 1954. Alamy stock photo.
The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” – William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun
“You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.” – Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
“I used to think this was the beginning of your story. Memory is a strange thing, it doesn’t work like I thought it did. We are so bound by time, by its order.” – Amy Adams, speaking to her daughter at her birth, in Arrival
Apparently it is not only Walter Benjamin who sees time as porous, though he speaks specifically of Naples, and he confines the porosity to days within a week, not to a mix of past and present: “…[T]he festival penetrates each and every working day….A grain of Sunday is hidden in each weekday, and how much weekday in this Sunday!” However, implied throughout “Naples” is the sense of the Neapolitans’ way of life as being from the past. Ferrante/Elena (F/E) feels the past so keenly that she says to herself, in My Brilliant Friend‘s prologue, “We’ll see who wins this time” (23), as she begins to write her and Lila’s history. On a personal note, as someone who has been around for a while, I can testify that Faulkner’s words ring true. And as for Austen…well, chin up, old girl, it ain’t happening here.
As she does in the first volume, F/E disrupts the chronology when she begins the second volume, Story of a New Name. After the prologue of My Brilliant Friend, F/E disrupts the chronology a few more times around key events. The chronology is so complex (to me) that I don’t want to attempt it in this blog. I’ll limit the discussion to a couple disruptions: immediately after the brief account of the doll-throwing incident the narration switches, to go back in time to give the reader context and come back to that day. Later, the author(s) fast forwards to the stone throwing incident and jumps back again.
The Story of a New Name, unlike My Brilliant Friend, is not divided into a prologue and several chronological books. Rather, the author(s) dives right in; the story simply resumes. The way the chapters are only signaled by modest little numbers that do not even begin on a new page adds to the feeling that we are simply and immediately being plunged into the action in New Name. And while volume I is divided into two chronological sections- “Childhood” and “Adolescence,” in New Name one chapter simply follows another.
Chapter 1 takes place in 1966 in the framework of Elena again looking back from the present, to when Lila gave her a box of notebooks. The notebooks record events from before 1966, so again the narration takes a step backward as Elena describes some of their contents. The last episode in the notebooks that Elena refers to, before she pushes the box into the river, is Marcello Solara’s showing up at the wedding wearing the shoes – which the first volume closed with.
Then chapter 2 begins, immediately jumping back to that same moment/sequence, Elena continuing the story with only the information she had that day, not adding what the notebooks tell her. We do not return to 1966; and she does not use information from the notebooks till much later in this volume — with the notable exception, in chapters 6-8, of Stefano’s brutal rape of Lila on their wedding night and their return to Naples. In chapter 9, Elena’s eyewitness account resumes.
Time is fluid, not just porous; F/E is omniscient, and that omniscience is slowly revealing itself; she knows the story so well that she can easily disrupt the chronology at key points. In Arrival, Amy Adams’ character actually begins to experience time as the visiting aliens do: not as linear, but as looping in on itself, taking you with it so that one moment is “now” and the next is “then,” and so “now” becomes the future.
The Story of a New Name, the second of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, starts its narrative in 1966 with Elena receiving a box of journals from Lila. Lila asks Elena to swear not to read the journals, but of course Elena reads them as soon as she gets a chance. The journals start in childhood so while Elena is reviewing them, she is also giving the reader a small recap as to what happened in the first book of the series, My Brilliant Friend. This narrative device works to the reader’s advantage because it jogs their memory if they have forgotten what happened in the first book. The journals are also a gateway into Lila’s mind. The reader now knows that when Elena is writing this story in future, she actually has a clear idea of what was going on in Lila’s mind as well. It helps fill in narrative gaps and shows the reader Lila’s feelings.
This start also pulls us back into the turbulent relationship between Elena and Lila. After Lila gives her the journals, Elena says, “At that time our relationship was terrible, but it seemed that only I considered it that way” (15). There is a contrast between the way Elena sees the relationship and the way Lila sees the relationship. This has been constant throughout the first book, even though the reader might not have known it, with Elena being the dominant point of view character. Now that we know what Lila is thinking through the introduction of her journals, I wonder if her view of the relationship will become more prevalent or if we still only know what Elena knows. The narrative device of the journal reflects the complex relationship between Elena and Lila. It shows that you can have a tight knit relationship and still not really know what’s going on in the other’s mind.
“ Stefano hears a voice from the past and maybe even before he was born. The order was be a man Stef, either you’ll subdue her now or you’ll never subdue her”.(Pg 41). We could assume the one of the voices he heard in the past was that of his father Achille. But Ferrante writes “even before he was born”. It’s perhaps since the beginning of time that boys are raised to have a sense of physical dominance “He is aware of his body as a means of dominating nature and as a weapon for fighting; he takes pride in his muscles as in his sex.” (Beauvoir, The Second Sex). It is with his sex that Stefano physically conquers what he believes is his right to take from Lila because of the traditional vows which were made in church and his upbringing with as man.The rione did not sympathize with Lila but with Stefano, “there was someone who knew how to be a man.” (pg 45)
Lenù though not in love with Antonio is brimming with sexual desire. She makes herself fully available to Antonio. Lenù does not care “about being pregnant without being married, about sin, about divine overseers in the cosmos above or the Holy Spirit” (pg 26). This confuses Antonio and he refuses to have intercourse with her because “I want to do it the way it’s done with a wife, not like this”. (Pg 27).
Both Antonio and Stefano are misogynistic in their behavior. One, a man who takes what he wants because he has the physical power to do so and the other who withdraws the giving of pleasure to another and only pleased with pleasure to himself.
For Lenù and Lila they too had grown up seeing their fathers beat their mothers and that was fine because their boyfriends, husbands or fathers could beat them out of love, to educate or re-educate them. (Pg 52)
This is just a reminder that you find the prompt for your Post 4 under schedule and the instructions for the meta-post under Assignments/Blogging. I would appreciate if you can leave comments to other students’ posts.
I updated the instruction for your presentations, and final papers.
Please start watching the TV series if you haven’t done it yet.
The writing tutor on Tuesday is Prof. Zamparini. It’s always a good idea to have a feedback on your writing.
As porous as this stone is the architecture. Building and action interpenetrate in the courtyards, arcades, and stairways. In everything they preserve the scope to become a theater of new, unforeseen constellations.(Benjamin 167-168)
This quote above is from Walter Benjamin, “Naples” and it resonated with me for I saw Naples as a stage where it was easy to hide true intentions. The way this city was built allowed some force or someone who is pulling the strings decide what the audience gets to see. Everything else that was considered to be too harsh or extreme were kept behind the stage.
I wasn’t the only one who saw “Naples” as place where one can succumb to delight without the need to attract attention. Jacqueline Vargas’s post, Porosity: Private is Public touches the contradiction within how life is depicted in Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend. The private vs. public life is at a equilibrium here. Lila has the life of the city within her home, but It’s not necessarily public to everyone around.
Irini Belitsis bought up an interested notion in her post The Clichéd View of Naples in which tourist don’t see Naples as it truly is. A city that has seen its fair share of chaos. Everyone else in the novel My Brilliant Friend is well aware of its harshness but the international audience don’t see it as so. When people who are not from Naples think of this place as a magnificent paradise that is untouched by the outside world. You and I know that it’s false, but Naples does not reflect that sense. This city is isolated to the effects of the world, and I wonder if there a isolation within the isolation. Specifically, the realness the depicted in the novel and how it’s not public knowledge and the deeper isolation from the world that is oblivious to this.
Ariana Guzman’s excellent post Naples as a Theater mentioned what I wanted to touch in my meta post that Naples is a stage in itself. As Guzman said herself that Lila’s name carries weight and value that only has structure because it’s an element within the stage. With that in mind, as William Shakespeare coined the phrase in Act-II, Scene-VII of the play As You Like It “All the world’s a stage,/ And all the men and women merely players”.
1950s Fruit Market in Santa Lucia, Naples https://www.alamy.com/travel-to-naples-italy-in-1950s-fruit-market-in-santa-lucia-naples-obstmarkt-im-viertel-santa-lucia-in-neapel-italien-image-date-1954-photo-erich-andres-image238538713.html
Benjamin introduces the notion of Naples’s characteristic grayness, a color that indicates lifelessness, lack of vigor as well as a lack of ferocity that entices and enchants outsiders in a gentle rather than fearful manner. He goes on to point out that, “Fantastic reports by travellers have touched up the city. In reality it is grey: a grey-red or ochre, a grey-white. And entirely grey against sky and sea. It is this, not least, that disheartens the tourist,” (Benjamin 169). He begins this section of the article by making it clear that Naples should not be regarded as an animated city, as false advertising might say. Furthermore, Benjamin views this city as being entirely embraced by this gray color that sets the mood as one cruises through its mazes. The use of the words ‘sky’ and ‘seas’ is an allusion to the organs of a city that reflect the health and happiness of the people and animals who inhabit it as well as the places themselves, with their unique foods and styles. According to him, these elements as a whole create a disappointing and downtrodden image of a forgotten city in the eyes of a curious and eager tourist who may have simply read travel brochures and read about the most wonderfully wealthy and touristy spots, yet did not and will not wish to become exposed to the city’s realities.
This seems to have an element of truth to it, according to Elena’s inside perception. After returning from a month long vacation in the island of Ischia, which had been both refreshing and heartwarming, aside from the traumatic and horrendous assault during the last night, she not only notices physical differences on herself but the ‘grey[ness]’ of the city is highlighted before her eyes. She makes a note, “As long as I had been immersed in the colors of Ischia, amid sunburned faces, my transformation had seemed suitable…The people, the buildings, the dusty, busy stradone had the appearance of a poorly printed photograph, like the ones in the newspapers,” (Ferrante 233). There are two important points here. Primarily, although she is now satisfied with her outward appearance, having rid of her physical insecurities thanks to the sea and sunshine, she still feels out of place. The clean and healing sea air combined with the never-ending sunshine and the healthy appearances of people who enjoy such natural luxuries every day, had made her feel at home. While she now has a renewed sense of health and beauty, the return to her old neighborhood invokes a sense of being an outsider. The familiar neighborhood of her childhood now appears, before her eyes, to be an ancient and ruined ‘photograph’. Such a description indicates that it is both a forgotten and unnecessary city, not only to her new healthy self but to the outside world in general. It is a harsh observation that implies a longing on Elena’s part to return to the peaceful, carefree and clean atmosphere of the Ischia sea. She even uses the word ‘dusty’ which gives an ill demeanor to the city while its business and activities do not signify livelihood but rather repetition and mindlessness: a collective forgetfulness that a happier outside world exists. In summary, Elena’s description is reminiscent of her old desires to escape the neighborhood and supports Benjamin’s perception of a cohesively grey Naples. However unfair it may seem, as an outsider, as well, it is hard to distinguish between whether the city, itself, is grey or the grayness flows within Elena or even Benjamin, creating a river of yearning for an unfamiliar city.
“Money gave even more force to the impression that what I lacked she had, and vice versa, in a continuous game of exchanges and reversals that, now happily, now painfully, made us indispensable to each other. She has Stefano, I said to myself after the episode of the glasses. She snaps her fingers and immediately has my repaired. What do I have? I answered that I had school, a privilege she had lost forever. That is my wealth, I tried to convince myself. And in fact that year all the teachers began to praise me again….I displayed my successes as if they were my mother’s silver bracelet, and yet I didn’t know what to do with that virtuosity. (Ferrante 259)”
Not only does this passage give insight to Lila and Lenu’s relationship, it also brings up the question of what people truly consider valuable when they are living in poverty or any other unfortunate circumstance. Benjamin’s piece on Naples puts emphasis on the poverty that the residents live under. Often times it is seen that individuals that live under unfortunate circumstances often find something to make them feel grateful for the livelihood they do have. In this case, Lenu does not have money so she attempts to find virtue in scholarly praise, chance at education, and good grades. When examining all the things she listed, you can clearly see that what she considers wealth is her education and the experience that comes along with it. Ultimately, while it is a great thing to find the good in everything despite adversity you may face, Lenu is stuck wondering what to do with what she considers her wealth.
Walter Benjamin’s take on Naples includes ideas about the “banal tourist” (164). The tourist visits the city to observe much of the other topics of Benjamin’s essay such as the crime, poverty, Camorra, and the gray working-class rione. Benjamin writes that the tourist “fares no better” in Naples (164). I interpreted this as the idea that the tourists who may visit the city with all clichéd purposes and stereotypes in mind may not end up as satisfied once they authentically experience real Naples.
One could argue, as many Italians probably do, that Ferrante’s novel is crowded with these same clichés of Naples recovering from WWII. While corruption, violence, poverty, and strife were certainly prevalent, as they were in many Europeans cities post-war, Ferrante’s book advocates the usual stereotypes that enthrall the foreign reader and tourist into Naples.
The foundations of Ferrante’s plot consist of two poor girls navigating their way through a difficult life. The version of Naples full of the Camorra, disorder, and discomfort is attractive to readers outside of Italy because it is how the city is constantly depicted for the international eye. It is difficult for me to fully decide my take on this novel because it seems rather challenging to write about this period of time in Naples without including the clichés, of which many hold truths to them.
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