L'amica geniale : A gender perspective

This essay is a study of a novel from a gender perspective with the aim of highlighting how society shapes women and men into different roles. The novel takes place in Italy between 1940 and 1960 and in the essay I also study whether the author´s description of society is in accordance with historical reality. To narrow the study down I have chosen to focus on education, family and women’s roles in society. In the first part of the essay I have studied statistics, documentaries and other sources, which I compared with the content of the novel. This confirms my hypothesis that Elena Ferrante’s story is an accurate portrait of the society of that time. The second part of the essay is studying L’amica geniale from a gender perspective. I have used a feminist approach basing it on Yvonne Hirdman’s theories of the gender system. The result of the study reveals that girls and boys are treated differently from a very young age and are given different roles and different spaces in society. Arguments for the biological difference between women and men are constantly present in the novel. For the two main characters, the possibility to study changes their lives in different ways and has long-term consequences. The text and its analysis show how only when people refuse the given roles and rebel against them, they are able to change them.