Tears of framtumaglia : Literary truth in the work of Elena Ferrante

This master thesis presents a study of the authorship of the Italian writer Elena Ferrante, focusing on hermain concepts “la frantumaglia” and “la smarginatura” in relation to the question of literary truth. Thepurpose is to examine the fascinating interaction between meta reflection and narration through anintratextual reading of her poetics elaborated in La frantumaglia (2013, 2016) and all novels publishedso far. With references to the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, la frantumaglia and lasmarginatura are interpreted as the unconscious and different mental disorders that characterize the crisisof the female protagonists. The analysis examines literary truth on three literary levels: the verbal,considering the Neapolitan dialect related to the city of Naples as a representation of both maternalorigin and patriarchal oppression, the stylistic, viewing la smarginatura as literary style, and finally, thesymbolic, connected to what Ferrante calls the “symbolic sphere of the authentic”. Furthermore, anintellectual approach to truth is discussed as a contraposition to the others. In applying the methodologyof Michael Riffaterre, the analysis of the stylistic and symbolic truth dimensions shows how theiridiosyncratic traits are extended and transformed throughout the Ferrantian work. The thesis alsosuggests a different interpretation of the intimate relationship between mother and daughter, one of theauthorship’s central themes. Unlike previous studies with a psychoanalytical approach that affirms theexistence of a pre-oedipal phase free from patriarchal intrusion, this analysis demonstrates how Ferranterepeatedly reveals this idea as an infantile fantasy. Instead, the thesis argues that the only real synthesisis found at the level of writing itself, in the merging of the perspectives of the two protagonists in thecycle of L’amica geniale (The Neapolitan novels). This synthesis is further conceived as the authenticidentity of the anonymous author herself