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==Writing==
==Writing==
Ferrante is the author of a half dozen novels, the best known of which<ref name="Donadio">{{cite news|last1=Donadio|first1=Rahel|title=Who Is Elena Ferrante? An Educated Guess Causes a Stir|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/14/books/who-is-elena-ferrante-an-educated-guess-causes-a-stir.html?_r=0|accessdate=14 March 2016|publisher=New York Times|date=13 March 2016}}</ref> is the four-volume work<ref>Jenny Turner, "[http://harpers.org/archive/2014/10/the-secret-sharer-4/2/ The Secret Sharer. Elena Ferrante's existential fiction]", ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'', October 2014.</ref> known as ''[[Neapolitan Novels]]'', about two perceptive and intelligent girls from [[Naples]] who try to create lives for themselves within a violent and stultifying culture. The series consists of ''My Brilliant Friend'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.europaeditions.com/review-show.php?Id=1287 |title=Catalogue – Book – News and Reviews |publisher=Europaeditions.com |date=2013-02-01 |accessdate=2015-06-13}}</ref> ''The Story of a New Name'' (2013), ''Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay'' (2014), and ''The Story of the Lost Child'' (2015), which was nominated for the [[Strega Prize]], an Italian literary award.<ref>[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/elena-ferrante-mystery-creator-of-her-neapolitan-novels/story-fnb64oi6-1227269529686] {{dead link|date=June 2015}}</ref><ref>[http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37539258 Elena Ferrante: Journalist defends unmasking 'anonymous' author]</ref>
Ferrante is the author of a half dozen novels, the best known of which<ref name="Donadio">{{cite news|last1=Donadio|first1=Rahel|title=Who Is Elena Ferrante? An Educated Guess Causes a Stir|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/14/books/who-is-elena-ferrante-an-educated-guess-causes-a-stir.html?_r=0|accessdate=14 March 2016|publisher=New York Times|date=13 March 2016}}</ref> is the four-volume work<ref>Jenny Turner, "[http://harpers.org/archive/2014/10/the-secret-sharer-4/2/ The Secret Sharer. Elena Ferrante's existential fiction]", ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'', October 2014.</ref> known as ''[[Neapolitan Novels]]'', about two perceptive and intelligent girls from [[Naples]] who try to create lives for themselves within a violent and stultifying culture. The series consists of ''My Brilliant Friend'' (2012),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.europaeditions.com/review-show.php?Id=1287 |title=Catalogue – Book – News and Reviews |publisher=Europaeditions.com |date=2013-02-01 |accessdate=2015-06-13}}</ref> ''The Story of a New Name'' (2013), ''Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay'' (2014), and ''The Story of the Lost Child'' (2015), which was nominated for the [[Strega Prize]], an Italian literary award.<ref>[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/elena-ferrante-mystery-creator-of-her-neapolitan-novels/story-fnb64oi6-1227269529686] {{dead link|date=June 2015}}</ref><ref>[http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37539258 Elena Ferrante: Journalist defends unmasking 'anonymous' author]</ref>


Ferrante holds that "books, once they are written, have no need of their authors."<ref name="wood">{{cite web | url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/01/21/women-on-the-verge | title=Women on the Verge: The Fiction of Elena Ferrante | author=Wood, James | publisher=Newyorker.com | accessdate=January 29, 2013}}</ref> She has repeatedly argued that anonymity is a precondition for her work<ref name="argument" /> and that keeping her true name out of the spotlight is key to her writing process.<ref>[http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/03/496406869/for-literary-world-unmasking-elena-ferrantes-not-a-scoop-its-a-disgrace For Literary World, Unmasking Elena Ferrante's Not A Scoop. It's A Disgrace]</ref> According to Ferrante, {{quote|Once I knew that the completed book would make its way in the world without me, once I knew that nothing of the concrete, physical me would ever appear beside the volume—as if the book were a little dog and I were its master—it made me see something new about writing. I felt as though I had released the words from myself.<ref name="AoF228" />}}
Ferrante holds that "books, once they are written, have no need of their authors."<ref name="wood">{{cite web | url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/01/21/women-on-the-verge | title=Women on the Verge: The Fiction of Elena Ferrante | author=Wood, James | publisher=Newyorker.com | accessdate=January 29, 2013}}</ref> She has repeatedly argued that anonymity is a precondition for her work<ref name="argument" /> and that keeping her true name out of the spotlight is key to her writing process.<ref>[http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/03/496406869/for-literary-world-unmasking-elena-ferrantes-not-a-scoop-its-a-disgrace For Literary World, Unmasking Elena Ferrante's Not A Scoop. It's A Disgrace]</ref> According to Ferrante, {{quote|Once I knew that the completed book would make its way in the world without me, once I knew that nothing of the concrete, physical me would ever appear beside the volume—as if the book were a little dog and I were its master—it made me see something new about writing. I felt as though I had released the words from myself.<ref name="AoF228" />}}

Revision as of 00:52, 5 October 2016

Elena Ferrante
OccupationNovelist
LanguageItalian
GenreLiterary fiction
Years active1992–present
Notable worksNeapolitan Novels
Website
elenaferrante.com

Elena Ferrante (Italian pronunciation: [ˌɛːlena ferˈrante]) is the pseudonym of an Italian novelist. Ferrante's books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into English, Dutch, French, German, and Spanish, among other languages. Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels are among her best known works.

She was named one of the 100 most influential people on the planet by Time magazine in 2016.[1]

Writing

Ferrante is the author of a half dozen novels, the best known of which[2] is the four-volume work[3] known as Neapolitan Novels, about two perceptive and intelligent girls from Naples who try to create lives for themselves within a violent and stultifying culture. The series consists of My Brilliant Friend (2012),[4] The Story of a New Name (2013), Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay (2014), and The Story of the Lost Child (2015), which was nominated for the Strega Prize, an Italian literary award.[5][6]

Ferrante holds that "books, once they are written, have no need of their authors."[7] She has repeatedly argued that anonymity is a precondition for her work[8] and that keeping her true name out of the spotlight is key to her writing process.[9] According to Ferrante,

Once I knew that the completed book would make its way in the world without me, once I knew that nothing of the concrete, physical me would ever appear beside the volume—as if the book were a little dog and I were its master—it made me see something new about writing. I felt as though I had released the words from myself.[10]

The first appearance of her work in English was the publication of a short story entitled "Delia's Elevator," translated by Adria Frizzi in the anthology After the War (2004).[11] It narrates the movements of the title character on the day of her mother's burial, particularly her return to her safe retreat in the old elevator in the apartment building where she grew up.

The fourth book of Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet, The Story of the Lost Child, appeared on The New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2015.[12]

Anonymity

Despite being recognized on an international scale,[13] she has kept her identity secret since the publication of her first novel in 1992.[10] The frantumaglia (act of falling apart) is a volume of her correspondence with editors, published in Italian, that sheds some light on her identity.[14]

There has been much speculation about Ferrante's identity. In 2016, Marco Santagata—an Italian novelist who is also a trained philologist, a scholar of Petrarch and Dante, and a professor at the University of Pisa—published a paper based on philological analysis of the writing, a close study of the detailed knowledge of the cityscape of Pisa as described in the novel that led him to conclude that the author had lived in Pisa but left by 1966, and the fact that the author reveals an expert knowledge of modern Italian politics, identified the probable author as Neapolitan professor Marcella Marmo, who studied in Pisa from 1964 to 1966. Both Marmo and the publisher deny Santagata's identification.[2] In an article for The New Yorker, James Wood pointed out that in her written correspondence with journalists Ferrante has referred to herself as a mother.[15] Citing financial records related to real estate transactions and royalties payments, investigative reporter Claudio Gatti concluded that Anita Raja, a Rome-based translator born in Naples, Italy, is the real author behind the Ferrante pseudonym.[16] Gatti's article was criticized by many in the literary world as a violation of privacy.[8][17] Matt Haig tweeted, "Think the pursuit to discover the ‘real’ Elena Ferrante is a disgrace and also pointless. A writer’s truest self is the books they write."[17]

Adaptations

Two of Ferrante's novels have been turned into films. Troubling Love (L'amore molesto) became the feature film Nasty Love directed by Mario Martone, while The Days of Abandonment (I giorni dell'abbandono) became a film of the same title directed by Roberto Faenza. In her nonfiction book Fragments (La frantumaglia 2003), Ferrante speaks of her experiences as a writer.

A 32-part series The Neapolitan Novels is in the works and will be co-produced by the Italian producer Wildside for Fandango Productions, with screenwriting led by the writer Francesco Piccolo.[18]

Works

See also: Neapolitan Novels
  • L'amore molesto (1992; English translation: Troubling Love, 2006)
  • I giorni dell'abbandono (2002; English translation: The Days of Abandonment, 2005)
  • La frantumaglia (2003; English translation Fragments, 2016)
  • La figlia oscura (2006; English translation: The Lost Daughter, 2008)
  • La spiaggia di notte (2007; English translation: The Beach at Night, forthcoming)
  • L'amica geniale (2011; English translation: My Brilliant Friend, 2012). OCLC 778419313.
  • Storia del nuovo cognome, L'amica geniale volume 2 (2012; English translation: The Story of a New Name, 2013). OCLC 829451619.
  • Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta, L'amica geniale volume 3 (2013; English translation: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, 2014). OCLC 870919836.
  • Storia della bambina perduta, L'amica geniale volume 4 (2014; English translation: The Story of the Lost Child, 2015). OCLC 910239891.

Awards and honours

References

  1. ^ a b Lauren Groff (April 21, 2016). "TIME 100 Artists, Elena Ferrante". Time. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
  2. ^ a b Donadio, Rahel (13 March 2016). "Who Is Elena Ferrante? An Educated Guess Causes a Stir". New York Times. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  3. ^ Jenny Turner, "The Secret Sharer. Elena Ferrante's existential fiction", Harper's Magazine, October 2014.
  4. ^ "Catalogue – Book – News and Reviews". Europaeditions.com. 2013-02-01. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  5. ^ [1] [dead link]
  6. ^ Elena Ferrante: Journalist defends unmasking 'anonymous' author
  7. ^ Wood, James. "Women on the Verge: The Fiction of Elena Ferrante". Newyorker.com. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
  8. ^ a b The NYRB’s argument for doxing Elena Ferrante is not very good.
  9. ^ For Literary World, Unmasking Elena Ferrante's Not A Scoop. It's A Disgrace
  10. ^ a b Ferri, Sandro; Ferri, Sandra (Spring 2015). "Interview: Elena Ferrante, Art of Fiction No. 228". No. 212. The Paris Review. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  11. ^ King, Martha (2004). After the War: A Collection of Short Fiction by Postwar Italian Women. New York: Italica Press. ISBN 978-0934977555.
  12. ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2015". The New York Times. December 3, 2015.
  13. ^ "The Ideal Marriage, According to Novels". 15 January 2016.
  14. ^ Elena Ferrante 'Unveiled' as Jewish German Translator
  15. ^ Wood, James (21 January 2013). "Women of the Verge: The fiction of Elena Ferrante". The New Yorker. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  16. ^ Gatti, Claudio. "Elena Ferrante: An Answer?".
  17. ^ a b Backlash for Reporter Who 'Outs' ID of Anonymous Writer Behind Elena Ferrante
  18. ^ Moylan, Brian (February 9, 2016). "Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels set for TV adaptation". The Guardian.
  19. ^ "'Anonymous' author on international Man Booker longlist". 10 March 2016 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  20. ^ "Elena Ferrante could be the first-ever anonymous Booker winner - Times of India".
  21. ^ "2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards Results". Independent Publisher. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  22. ^ Chad W. Post (April 14, 2014). "2014 Best Translated Book Awards: Fiction Finalists". Three Percent. Retrieved April 18, 2014.

Further reading

  • Buonanno, Elda. La Frantumaglia: Elena Ferrante's "fragmented self" Ph.D. thesis, City University of New York, 2011.
  • Milkova, Stiliana. "Mothers, Daughters, Dolls: On Disgust in Elena Ferrante's La figlia oscura". Italian Culture 31:2 (September 2013).
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