Synchronizing Boundaries

After multiple pregnancies and much physical and emotional separation, Lila and Elena begin to experience a synchronization in their bodies that allow them to endure new life together. Elena recounts this tumultuous period, “But our bodies, although undergoing the same process of reproducing life, continued to experience the phases in different ways, mine with active collaboration, hers with dull resignation,” (Ferrante 154). Although their delight and excitement become evident in their ability to reinforce their friendship, Lila’s fear of dissolving boundaries and misshapen people and objects begins extending to the rest of her body. Lila’s desire to constantly be in control of the flow of events and the people around her is no different for this pregnancy. She plans for it and yet her mental state of constant turmoil sends signals to her body as if it’s struggling to comprehend and to give in to the physical changes taking place on the inside and outside. Her body, just like her mind, has no desire for unpredictability that could potentially have disastrous results. This is also a reflection of Lila’s unwillingness to leave her neighborhood, let alone Naples, itself, a fear of leaving the mental boundaries that she has created for herself. On the other hand, Elena’s body is very welcoming to the new life growing inside of her, a reflection of her willingness to expand her world beyond the neighborhood, Naples and Italy, as a whole. Each time that Elena travels abroad, her heart swells with pride at her broadening horizons. She is striving to not limit herself to the expectations of her inner circle, the neighborhood and her motherly responsibilities, slowly beginning to understand that she is capable of doing a multitude of things outside of the small yet complexly dangerous world of her origins that keep pulling her back into its abyss. Unlike Lila, she has an ability to control herself, regardless of the disastrous situations she finds herself in, working through the obstacle course with steady determination. While Lila has determination, as well, her’s is an obsessive desire to maintain control without giving much thought to her well being, her thoughts or her own body, knowing that her mind will distort everything around her, regardless of her efforts, if she stops for even a moment.

Happy Thanksgiving and plans for next class

Dear All,

Please read volume 4 (pp. 243-360), and the article by Marianne Hirsch (you can download it in the page called “Materials”). Try to see whether The Neapolitan Novels can be considered “novel of formation” as defined by Hirsch. You don’t have to post anything, but you can if you want! Please bring a copy of the essay.

You should also start working on your paper and bring to class a tentative outline with working thesis and tentative list of paragraphs. Please bring a printed copy that we can workshop and peer-review.

Last thing: after class, I will be in room HW1324 to give a workshop on how to write your final paper. Please come if you can.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

Loss of Control

Throughout the Neapolitan Novels Lila experiences episodes, she calls dissolving boundaries. Figures and people spill over their outlines and become shapeless and Lila experiences this in 1958 on New Year’s Eve when her brother Rino and his friends battle with fireworks to show up the Solaras. The dissolving of boundaries is attached to a loss of control. This sensation terrifies Lila and she expresses, “All my life I’ve done nothing, Lenù, but hold back moments like those” (TSLC, 177). But, when an earthquake hits the neighborhood, Lila is enveloped in a situation far beyond her control as she feels her own boundaries and the boundaries of the neighborhood dissolve.

When the earthquake hits, Lila has no control over anything, and it terrifies her. Earlier in the novels whenever things would scare Lila, she would use the men in her life to hide behind: Marcello, Stefano, Michele, Nino, and Enzo. When she fears one man she moves to the next and in this cycle, she has control. Lila has this natural control over men. Lila used men as a tool to avoid the episodes of dissolving boundaries but when the earthquake hits, she has no one to hide behind because it’s all around her. The fear and sensation of smarginatura engulfs Lila and she is left as helpless as ever.  

POST 10 — Quaking with fear

Eboli after the Irpinia Earthquake of Nov. 23, 1980.

THIS WAS IN WIKIPEDIA: The quake struck at 18:34 UTC (19:34 local). The first jolt was followed by 90 aftershocks. There were three main shocks, each with epicenters in a different place, within 80 seconds. The largest shock registered a peak acceleration of 0.38g, with 10 seconds of motion greater than 0.1g. The three main shocks combined produced 70 seconds of shaking greater than 0.01g.

The Iripinia Earthquake of Nov. 23, 1980 killed between 2500 and 5000 people and injured about 9000 more. It wiped out a couple of rural towns and did a lot of damage in Naples. It wasn’t the worst earthquake in Italian history (one killed something like 75000 people in Sicily in 1908) but it was certainly big enough to symbolize the insecurity of everything and to reinforce Lila’s primal fear that everything and everyone were dissolving around the edges.

On p171 bottom (end of chapter 49), Lenù writes: Lila, always in control of everything, at that moment wasn’t in control of anything. Of course Lila wasn’t always in control, but to Lenù she gave that appearance. The earthquake opens up Lila completely: Fantasies fed on fantasies, and Lila, I saw, believed everything. (p172, chapter 50) During their time in Lila’s car, after the major earthquake shocks are over and everyone is flowing by, and Marcello drives his car on the sidewalk, Lila says: the cars boundaries were dissolving, those of Marcello too. (p173) Lila is able finally to tell Lenù how terrified she has been all her life at losing control, that the reality of life is not the order we impose on it, but an enormous mess mixing at the edges that it takes all of Lila’s intelligence and energy to keep in bounds. The earthquake has brought the seeming solidness of matter into synch with Lila perceptions when she feels she is losing her mind; now it is reality and her confession is no longer something that defines her as mentally ill. The earthquake proves that she has been right and sane all along. What is the real world, Lenù, nothing, nothing, nothing about which one can say conclusively. (p176)

It turns out Lila would also have been proven accurate in her pessimistic attitude toward corruption in Naples, which, I would add, is not at all limited to the South or to Italy — one can imagine a serious investigation into the real-estate industry in New York. MORE WIKIPEDIA, sourced from a book about the Camorra: Of the $40 billion spent on earthquake reconstruction, an estimated $20 billion went to create an entirely new social class of millionaires in the region, $6.4 billion went to the Camorra, whereas another $4 billion went to politicians in bribes. Only the remaining $9.6 billion a quarter of the total amount, was actually spent on people’s needs.[5]

Metapost

This week the posts varied by three categories: focusing on the earthquake, highlighting other aspects of The Story of the Lost Child, or commenting on Lucamente’s article.

Most of the students chose to react to the effects of the earthquake. Ariana focuses on what the earthquake symbolizes by comparing the scientific cause and effect of earthquakes to the experiences the characters must endure from the disaster. She states, “Lenu is experiencing moments which lead to her own personal earthquake,” as she decides to leave the stability of Pietro to return to the chaos of Nino.” Next, Paul pays attention to the significance the earthquake has on Lila and Elena’s relationship. He emphasizes how earthquakes are uncontrollable and unable to be manipulated by humans and this catastrophe, out of Lila’s power, forces her to “finally confess to Elena all the reasons for her behavior.” Similarly to Paul, Kelsey notes how, on account of the earthquake, Lila is “stripped of the ability to precisely calibrate her thoughts, words, gestures, tactics, and strategies.” Kelsey also highlights how Elena notices the difference in Lila’s fear compared to her own fear of the event. Julie concentrates on the comparison between the earthquake and Elena, noting how the literal foundations of Naples and the foundations of Elena’s life overlap and suffer “violent breakage and destruction,” at the same time. While Naples shatters, Elena’s personal life faces catastrophe – she gives birth, her mother dies, and Nino cheats.

Shoshanna and Skevi both chose to focus on different aspects of the novel. Skevi focuses on the compelling passage that took place at the gynecologist. She comments on Elena describing Lila as “malicious” and “anxious.” Skevi finds that Elena has constructed an image of Lila that is inferior to the image she thinks and wants people to have of herself. She also notes how it is contradicting that Elena finds Lila to be “anxious” when Elena constantly questions her own life decisions. Shoshanna’s post discusses Elena’s rocky transition through motherhood. She highlights how the constant turbulence and “unmotherly” actions will affect Dede and Elsa, mentioning the idyllic image the girls hold of Lila, which juxtaposes with the image they have of their own mother. Shoshanna theorizes that is is easy for children to idealize other parents when they don’t witness the punishment and negativity.

Lastly, Katherine focuses on Lucamente’s article. She notes how this piece swayed her view of Elena. Lucamente describes Elena as an exploitative person, rather than a dependent one. Katherine finds that Elena’s actions are usually always self-sufficient and one-sided, as “most of the relationships she creates are because she can benefit from them,” socially, financially, and academically.

From the posts, it is evident that the earthquake had a notable effect on both readers and characters. The event undoubtedly changed Lila and Elena. It is also clear that this volume displays the repercussions Elena faces regarding her life decisions and the complexities she encounters juggling her personal and professional life.

Exploiting Feminism

Stefania Lucamante writes in Undoing Feminism: The Neapolitan Novels of Elena Ferrante that “A complex relationship between the emancipatory power of sisterly friendship and the desire for the individual assertion of a woman threads the sisterly relations” between Lenù and Lila. Lucamante argues however that the relationship works to improve and help Lenù but not Lila:  “..the relationship is functional to her individual ascent, not a communal one”. Previously, I had seen Elena as being dependent on Lila, but after reading Lucamante’s paper, I’m beginning to think that it is less a situation of dependency, but of exploitation. As Lucamante writes, “Elena feigns submission to Lila, but she actually uses her”. It seems Lenù approaches many of her relationships this way. For example, her relationships with the other Airotas, in which she seems to benefit from all the connections and prestige that they have, but it doesn’t appear they receive anything from her in return. Most of the relationships she creates are because she can benefit them, whether it be her relationship with Donato Sarratore, once she discovers he is a writer, or with Franco, who helps her both socially, financially, and education-wise.

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”.

Shake, rattle and roll.

It takes a literal earth shaking for Lila to come out of the protective shell she has created for her own personal protection. The earthquake “entered into our bones” explains Elena and goes on to tell how not only the real world but how in their internal world everything that is familiar and stabile no longer exist. There is nothing and no one to help during an earthquake. One can’t intellectualize, fantasize, desire, dream, fight, resist, outsmart a earthquake. There you are and there you will stay until mother nature decides to let it stop. It is an event that Lila has no control over, none, and it’s that lack of control that makes her break down to tell her truth. When an earthquake ends it leaves behind a euphoric feeling. Going from an extreme emotional fear of death and dying to survival will generate endorphins perhaps like a truth serum. It took this event for Lila to finally confess to Elena all the reasons of her behavior and they flood out of her uncensored even if she herself can’t understand them all. It’s not that Lila is a stranger to terror she says “the terror remains, it’s always between the normal thing and the other”. (pg 178) But there has always been ways for her to navigate, control and manipulate her terror, with an earthquake, it’s no use.

I tend to feel that without this event Lila would never have come clean to Elena. She would have remained as she is because she is too smart to do otherwise and that’s why Ferrante has to literally shake her up. On a personal note, I’ve experienced every major earthquake when living in San Francisco and L.A and I can attest that after such events there is a euphoric feeling, happy to be alive, to have friends and family. It does, if only temporarily, expose our true nature and what is important.

 

 

Undoing Feminism

Stefania Lucamente compares Elena’s use of Lila to ameliorate her life and career to Ferrante using other female authors without crediting them in order to establish herself. Moreover, Lucamente labels Ferrante and her work as not feminist. 

First, Lucamente critiques that Elena Ferrante, if she is Anita Raja, lived through the second-wave feminism and Italian Women’s Movement of the 1970s. But, Ferrante does not “overtly recognize the merit of Morante and Ramondino as her most direct sources,” just as it “pains Elena to acknowledge the merits of Lila for her individual success” (33). 

Next, Lucamente argues that Elena’s narration portrays Lila as a “hysterical woman constantly on the brink of a nervous breakdown (or smarginatura)” and this doesn’t allow Lila to become neither a “full-fledged feminist nor a postfeminist character” (36). 

Furthermore, Lucamente disagrees that Elena’s soul seems to ache for Lila. I don’t agree with this because it always seems as though Lila is a component of all of Elena’s thoughts and actions. Lucamente continues her critique by stating that for Ferrante narrating is only possible at the moment of the disappearance of the most important woman from another woman’s life. She then adds, “a woman’s autonomy becomes possible only at the expense of the sisterhood; it undoes feminism” (39). I think that Lucamente’s argument is problematic. 

I don’t think that Ferrante is “undoing feminism” but instead simply expressing how life works sometimes. I find the fact that her writing shows the autonomy of one woman at the expense of so much does not undo feminism, but in fact, displays the honest difficulties that arise for women and between women. I found a compelling quote in a Vox article that pertains to My Brilliant Friend: “What Elena Ferrante has done is to create characters who are hateable — who sometimes hate each other and sometimes deserve to be hated — and to remind us that women are worthy of depiction in art not because they are better than men but because they, too, are human.”  Ferrante highlights the complexities and various layers of women, which is not unfeminist, but realistic.

Physical & Mental Destruction

The Earthquake of November 23, 1980 is described in the text as this long lasting experience when in reality, they only a last a couple of minutes and even less than that. Lila and Lenu are both pregnant and must seek out safety while it seems like everything around them is collapsing. it was clearly a life-changing experience for the two women especially, Lenu.

“The Earthquake, with its definite destruction–entered into our bones. It expelled the habit of stability and solidity, the confidence that every second would be identical to the next, the familiarity of sounds and gestures, the certainty if recognizing them. A sort of suspicion of every form of reassurance took over, a tendency to believe in every prediction of bad talk, an obsessive attention to signs of the brittleness of the world, and it was hard to take control again. Minutes and minutes and minutes that wouldn’ t end (The Story of the Lost Child, 172)”.

Lenu’s account is that the destruction is something that entered her bones. Obviously there is a much deeper impact as there is the presence of both physical and emotional destruction. She goes on to state that as scared as she was, she wasn’t as scared as Lila. The woman she saw in those moments was the Lila that was stripped of the ability to precisely calibrate her thoughts, words, gestures, tactics, and strategies. She sees Lila as a useless suit of armor (TSOTLC, 173). As she is experiencing the earthquake she is hyperfocused on what is seemingly, Lila’s loss of believing solid connections. The most intriguing aspect of this experience is Lenu’s focus on Lila as they attempt to get themselves, and ultimately their unborn children to safety.