Feminist Topographies of a City: Elena Ferrante’s Naples Cover Image

Feministyczne topografie miasta –Neapol Eleny Ferrante
Feminist Topographies of a City: Elena Ferrante’s Naples

Author(s): Agnieszka Gawron
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Gender Studies, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Theory of Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku
Keywords: Ferrante; Naples; feminist topography; labyrinthine; identity;memory

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the role of Naples in Elena Ferrante’s works.The regional capital of Campania serves here as a topographical frame for the protagonists’ experiences and, at the same time, as a plane on to which Ferrante inscribes fundamental dimensions of her work, relatedto autobiography, identity, intertextuality and artistic craft. Central to such poetics of space is the inseparable relationship between Naples, women’s experiences and creativity. The essence of this relationship is defined by such notions as labyrinth, porous, ghettoization, and “smarginatura”. Rewriting the city from the perspective of women’s sensitivityand memory subversively deconstructs its androcentric and oppressive qualities, emphasizing women’s agency as dux feminae facti, marking their own spaces in the urban and artistic topography.

  • Issue Year: 2022
  • Issue No: 20
  • Page Range: 75-97
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Polish