Staging a Word: Overcoming and Recovering Familial Bonds in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels
[Article]
Caffè, Emanuela
The saga of Elena Ferrante, the so called Neapolitan novels, opens with an index that contains the list of the main families of the trilogy. Thus, it immediately presents itself as a familial saga set in one of Naples's poorest neighbourhoods, where violence infects any corner of familial and social life. On the one hand, such an environment constrains and victimises individuals, and does not allow the creation of healthy familial bonds. On the other hand, Ferrante's patriarchal family works as a tool for the perpetration of violence according to a mechanism which innovatively intertwines social and genetic influence. In other words, characters seem to genetically inherit their own destiny, which is indelibly marked by violence. Despite the apparent inescapability of such an inheritance, Ferrante appeals to genetic, psychoanalytical and feminist theories and ingeniously combines them in order to create a path towards the resolution of transgenerational violence.