Elena Ferrante

Elena Ferrante
Born Naples, Italy
Occupation Novelist
Genre Literary fiction
Notable works Neapolitan Novels, The Days of Abandonment, My Brilliant Friend

Elena Ferrante (Italian pronunciation: [ˌɛːlena ferˈrante]) is a pseudonymous Italian novelist whose true identity is not publicly known. Ferrante's books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into English, Dutch, French, and Spanish, among other languages. Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels are among her most famous 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 "The Neapolitan Novels", about two perceptive and intelligent girls from Naples who try to create lives for themselves within a violent and stultifying culture, consist of My Brilliant Friend,[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]

Ferrante holds that "books, once they are written, have no need of their authors."[6]

Speculation about Ferrante's identity is rife. She does appear to be a woman: 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.[7]

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).[8] 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.[9]

Anonymity

Despite being recognized on an international scale,[10] she has kept her identity secret since the publication of her first novel in 1992.[11] The frantumaglia (The act of falling apart) is a volume of her correspondence with editors, published in Italian, that sheds some light on her identity, though her identity is still speculated upon.

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 1964–6. Both Marmo and the publisher deny Santagata's identification.[2]

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.

It has been reported that 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.[12]

Works

Awards and honours

References

  1. 1 2 Lauren Groff (April 21, 2016). "TIME 100 Artists, Elena Ferrante". Time. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
  2. 1 2 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. ↑
  6. ↑ Wood, James. "Women on the Verge: The Fiction of Elena Ferrante". Newyorker.com. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
  7. ↑ Wood, James (21 January 2013). "Women of the Verge: The fiction of Elena Ferrante". The New Yorker. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  8. ↑ King, Martha (2004). After the War: A Collection of Short Fiction by Postwar Italian Women. New York: Italica Press. ISBN 978-0934977555.
  9. ↑ "The 10 Best Books of 2015". The New York Times. December 3, 2015.
  10. ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-ideal-marriage-according-to-novels
  11. ↑ Ferri, Sandro; Ferri, Sandra (Spring 2015). "Interview: Elena Ferrante, Art of Fiction No. 228" (212). The Paris Review. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  12. ↑ Moylan, Brian (February 9, 2016). "Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels set for TV adaptation". The Guardian.
  13. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35771674
  14. ↑ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/features/Elena-Ferrante-could-be-the-first-ever-anonymous-Booker-winner/articleshow/51837635.cms?
  15. ↑ Chad W. Post (April 14, 2014). "2014 Best Translated Book Awards: Fiction Finalists". Three Percent. Retrieved April 18, 2014.

Further reading

External links

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