Tag Archives: elenaferrante

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.

In Spite of Everything

I found the Ferrante interview with Nicola Lagioia to be quite compelling. On the topic of interdependence, Ferrante states, “I wanted them against the closed, fixed state of the environment, to be mobile, so that nothing could truly stabilize them and they themselves would pass through each other as if they were air – but without ever freeing themselves from the gravitational pull of their birthplace” (Frantumaglia, 367). I find this to be a perfect representation of the relationship the girls have with each other and with Naples. Once Elena physically leaves Naples, there will always be a force that always attracts her back mentally and sometimes physically.

Another quote from Ferrante’s interview that I like is “people move between good and bad almost without realizing it” (367). Lila, Lenu, as well as some of the other secondary characters certainly have their good moments and their imperfect moments where they display unfavorable qualities. I think that both Lila and Lenu are insecure in different ways when it comes to their relationship. The power and competition they possess over each other leads each of them to at times demonstrate harshness. I think both girls more often than not realize how they are acting towards each other because they do so to invoke a reaction.

Lastly, Ferrante states, “Writing is an act of pride” (379). This is visible through many of the characters who write like Elena, Nino, Donato, and Lila. Each of these characters at some point feels a sense of satisfaction based on their own literary achievements or abilities. Writing is especially significant for characters in the Neopolitan Novels because it enables them to assert their awareness of Italian. Elena advances in life, socially and economically, because of her expertise in writing Italian, which for a time being provides her with self-fulfillment.