Elena Ferrante

The success of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels (2011-14) has sparked worldwide buzz in and out of academia, in literary journals, and in book clubs. Ferrante is the author of eight novels, a collection of papers related to her work as a writer, Frantumaglia, and a children’s book, The Beach at Night.

More
"I'm alive": On Maggie Gyllenhaal's Leda in 'The Lost Daughter'
New
By
Devanshi Khetarpal

In Maggie Gyllenhaal's 2021 adaptation of Elena Ferrante's 'The Lost Daughter,' the last sentence of the book ("I am dead, but I'm fine") changes as Leda says, "I'm alive." By changing the death that Leda's experience motherhood entails, Gyllenhaal creates her own Leda, a woman who is different from that in the Ferrante's text.

On a Change of Location in Season 2 of My Brilliant Friend
By
Stiliana Milkova
When the televised adaptation of Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend makes Turin the home of Elena Greco’s future husband’s family, it undoes the emancipatory energy the city generates in Ferrante’s novels.
Lies That Tell the Truth: Tiziana de Rogatis on Elena Ferrante’s New Novel
By
Barbara Alfano
Ferrante leaves the reader with a reflection on failure. With this novel, the author attempts to scour the failure of progressive culture’s great projects of emancipation and education, as well as the failure to rework an ending and a trauma: those of a dualistic geopolitical system.
The Honest Truth: Ferrante's Frantumaglia
By
Barbara Alfano
Despite our horror, there is something undeniably positive that Claudio Gatti’s revelation accomplishes for readers and scholars of Ferrante: in spite of its intent, it confirms the absolute truth of Ferrante’s La frantumaglia as a programmatic work, completely coherent with the writer’s thought on authorship.
Lettura, scrittura e autoriflessione nel ciclo de L'amica geniale di Elena Ferrante
By
Olivia Santovetti

The article explores the theme of reading and writing in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet. The fictional character of Elena, the writer, will be analysed in its relationship with Lila, the non-writer. In the symbiotic relationship between the two friends, reading and writing appear as something more complex than simply a way of redeeming themselves from their oppressive reality (in Italian). 

Elena Ferrante's Run-ons

Her run-on sentences are the mechanism for producing a distinctive reality effect. They deny, at the micro-level, any logical cohesion or narrative arc or life story, even as they are part of a retrospective narration whose end is never really in doubt.

Fabricating Stories
By
Victor Xavier Zarour Zarzar
"While L'amore molesto does not reveal what love itself is, it certainly makes it clear that the act of loving and being loved is a viscous affair. One we cannot escape from, as it adheres to the self as skin does to flesh. We can only, this novel suggests, try to understand it, or rather, mold it and reimagine it in an effort to make it coherent—palatable."
Metamorfosi del tempo. Il ciclo dell'Amica geniale
By
Tiziana De Rogatis
Mi chiedo come mai questa favola aspra e scomoda che è L’amica geniale sia stata condivisa o anche solo intuita da così tante lettrici e lettori, al punto da fare di questa quadrilogia uno dei testi più apprezzati dell’attuale World Literature. Forse perché abbiamo tutti bisogno oggi di una narrazione che ci mostri dall’interno il nucleo oscuro della nostra contemporaneità.
Chi ha paura di Elena Ferrante?
By
Tiziana De Rogatis
Who's afraid of Elena Ferrante? De Rogatis considers the controversial status of Elena Ferrante's work within the world of Italian criticism. 
Tabloid Footprints Everywhere
By
Christiane Swenson
Premise and style-wise, “Cat Person” and Elena Ferrante’s body of work could not be more different; but thematically, they share the same beating heart: stories about women navigating the world told uniquely through their eyes, grappling silently with the politics of gender and consent, constantly forced to rebuild themselves for men.
The Metamorphosis of Time
By
Tiziana De Rogatis
Historically represented and perceived by the two women themselves as silent and invisible, the female point of view cannot be at the center of this narrative in an immediate and unreflective way.
The Lost Daughter: Elena Ferrante’s Haunting Mothers on the Big Screen
By
Katrin Wehling-Giorgi

Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of The Lost Daughter breaks new ground by narrating a global female imaginary of women and mothers at breaking point (Ferrante’s ‘smarginatura’, or dissolving margins) that remains underexplored and often silenced in cultural production. 

My Colloquies are shareables: Curate personal collections of blog posts, book chapters, videos, and journal articles and share them with colleagues, students, and friends.

My Colloquies are open-ended: Develop a Colloquy into a course reader, use a Colloquy as a research guide, or invite participants to join you in a conversation around a Colloquy topic.

My Colloquies are evolving: Once you have created a Colloquy, you can continue adding to it as you browse Arcade.