Elena Ferrante's Women: Between Identity and Feminism of Difference
Elena Ferrante's fiction constitutes, internationally, a literary case whose fortune, compared to the cold reception her works received in Italy, has determined a real Ferrante fever, especially in American society.
Beyond the author's secret identity that has been amplified by the media, her novels have acted as an adhesive on a multitude of women who recognize themselves in a narrative that represents the counterpoint of the difference in the universe of the male narrative of the world.
From the novel L'Amore molesto (1992), to Amica geniale (2011) to the recent La vita bugiarda degli adulti (2019), Elena Ferrante's women draw an alternative idea of female identity (sororanza) that claims the autonomy of their sexual difference freed from the stereotypes of machismo.
In this course, we will delve into the world of Ferrante's work by examining the way in which women are represented and the issues related to them (mother-daughter relationships; female subjectivity); We will also examine the style of her writing through a detailed analysis of her texts; We will compare the critical judgments expressed by Italian and American scholars in order to understand the reasons for her success. We shall also act on the double track of literature and cinematography, commenting and working together on the recent novel The Liar Life of Adults and the respective film adaptation.
At the end of the course, students will be able to understand how the feminist concept of gender difference is applied to storytelling and what are the main differences between novel and film.