Elena Ferrante is a pseudonymous Italian novelist. Ferrante’s books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into many languages. Her four-book series of Neapolitan Novels are her most widely known works. Elena Ferrante is the name used by the author of many novels, including the four-volume work titled the Neapolitan Novels. The Neapolitan Novels tell the life story of two perceptive and intelligent girls, born in Naples in 1944, who try to create lives for themselves within a violent and stultifying culture. The series consists of My Brilliant Friend (2012), 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.
Despite being recognized as a novelist on an international scale, Ferrante has kept her identity secret since the 1992 publication of her first novel. Speculation as to her true identity has been rife, and several theories, based on information Ferrante has given in interviews as well as analysis drawn from the content of her novels, have been put forth. Time magazine called Ferrante one of the 100 most influential people in 2016. (Wikipedia)
Ferrante on Class, Capital, and Language
The best they can do, it seems, is embrace their fate, fight for their own servitude.
- Ferrante, Elena. My Brilliant Friend. Book One: Childhood, Adolescence. Trans. Anne Goldstein. New York: Europa, 2012.
Ferrante Videos
A Brief Guide to Elena Ferrante with Joanna Walsh:
Elena Ferrante in Translation:
The Elena Ferrante Phenomenon | Italics:
Jhumpa Lahiri on Elena Ferrante’s Anonymity | Conversations with Tyler:
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante REVIEW:
‘My Brilliant Friend’ by Elena Ferrante | Book of the Year?:
My Brilliant Friend | Official Trailer | HBO:
Wine, perhaps more than any other drink, offers a whole field of social differentiation. There is good wine and bad, expensive and cheap, though quality does not always correlate with price, and so most important of all is the sense of taste (both corporeal and social) required to discern the right wine, for the right occasion. At Lila’s wedding, these distinctions are played out too openly, in a gauche failure of sophistication, a betrayal of the mandate to present taste as natural and innate: “the more rancorous guests [. . .] notice the things that weren’t right” when they see that “the wine wasn’t the same quality for all the tables” (323). The ensuing discontent reveals the “reality behind the appearance of festivity. [. . .] They had spent their last cent for the gift, for what they were wearing, had gone into debt, and now they were treated like poor relations, with bad wine, intolerable delays in service?” (326). A wedding is to be a space of exception, in which economic calculation is briefly suspended in carnivalesque celebration, but the scale of the sacrifice required is such that it is difficult to maintain that fiction of disinterested generosity. Not least when the wine you are served is worse than your neighbour’s.
- Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Trans. Richard Nice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.
Daniel’s Ferrante slides
Here you can find Daniel’s slides used for today’s discussion of Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend. Also his character cheat sheet. And don’t forget those memes!
Ferrante Memes
See also Gabby, the original Meme Queen, for her inspirational blog post on My Beautiful Friend.
Patricio’s Ferrante Slides
Here you can find Patricio’s slides used for today’s discussion of Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend.
Ferrante Questions
- Who is the “brilliant friend”?
- In what ways are Lenù and Lila similar, and in what ways are they different?
- How does gender affect their experience growing up (and their friendship)?
- How does class affect their experience growing up (and their friendship)?
- What are the causes and consequences of the violence that is never far from the surface?
- What changes do the characters undergo as the book progresses?
- What changes does the neighbourhood (and/or Naples) undergo as the book progresses?
- How does “before” affect and influence the “now” of the novel?
- Why does Lila agree to marry Stefano?
- What will happen next?
The following questions are taken from your blog posts…
On Lila:
Why do you think Lila disappears?
What do you think happened to Lila in the end?
Also, what is your take on her personality?
How do you feel the story would be different if Lila had continued to go to school? Do you feel as if we would have gotten the salient ‘you’re my brilliant friend’ that the book is named after?
Oh no…tragic ending… Poor Lila tried her best to get rid of the misfortune brought by her destiny, only to step into a “betrayed” marriage again. If you were Lila, how would you rewrite your life story?
I previously had a friend who was a lot like Lila. Have you had an experience with someone in real life who is similar?
Do you think the marriage between Lila and Stefano will last?
Who do you think Lila should have ended up with, Marcello, Enzo, Pasquale, or Stefano? (Add in more if I missed any).
Why do you think she left her academics behind to pursue shoemaking? Do you think this was to satisfy her father?
On Elena:
What would Elena have changed about her childhood if she had the chance to go back to relive that moment and why?
Did you relate to some of Elena’s thoughts?
Who do you think Elena will end up with?
On Lila and Elena:
What do you think about Elena and Lila’s friendship?
What are your thoughts regarding the friendship between Elena and Lila?
Do you think that if Lila’s psychology is described, Lila’s character will become more specific and likable, or will it break the image of Lila in the reader’s mind.
What did you think of Elena and Nina’s friendship/rivalry? Did you think it accurately reflects many real-life friendships?
Can you comprehend the type of friendship described in the book—which involve possessiveness, jealousy, and resentment—emotions that are not quite “positive”?
Given the different strengths and weaknesses outlined of the two girls, did you find yourself relating to one more than the other? Do you think that this might have been a reason for Ferrante creating such a contrast between the two characters?
How would you place Elena and Lila’s growth against the coming of age of the society and nation they live in?
Did these two women push each other to grow positively or did they hold one another back? did the competition between them drive them to become better individuals or did the jealousy and toxicity leave them to be better off without having been friends, to begin with?
How do you think that Elena and Lila’s relationship dynamic, if would’ve changed if they were to have the same socioeconomic status which would eliminate a lot of the differences and jealousies?
What are your thoughts on the friendship between Lenù and Lila? Have you ever had a friendship like that?
What is the effect of Elena and Lila being so different yet complementary? How can their relationship function as “Yin and Yang” or the “Sun and Moon”?
Did you think Elena and Lila’s relationship was a healthy one? Do you think Lila’s influence on Elena was a positive or negative thing?
Do you think Elena and Lila’s friendship is positive or negative or a mix of both?
What were your feelings about the ending? What do you think it means for the next chapter in Elena and Lila’s lives and friendship?
Do you think there were some aspects of Lila and Lenu’s relationship that were toxic or unhealthy?
What is are your thoughts on Lila and Elena’s friendship? Do you think they were slightly toxic for one another?
Lila and Elena have two very different personailities, do you think their friendship would have formed if they two came from different backgrounds? Why or why not?
How would you define Elena and Lila’s friendship? Do you think it is healthy both in our standards and in the context of their environment?
On Society:
How do you think socioeconomic status influences the opportunities of our characters?
Do you think the influence from the family/parents is the biggest influence for a person’s growth? If you were Lila, what would you might have done when living with a family like that? Do you think Lila ever recovered from her childhood trauma?
On My Brilliant Friend:
What did you find or not find relatable within the novel?
What aspect of the story did you relate with most and why?
How would you compare Ferrante’s prose and writing style to the other authors we’ve covered in class?
On Friendship:
Who is your brilliant friend?
Have you ever been friends with someone you Envied or Looked up to? if so how were the relationships different? and If it was envy, how did It affect the relationship?
Other:
Elena often doubts her and her ability in school, near the end she says in reaction to Lila and Stefano’s marriage that “studying is useless” she doubts that she can make it. Have you ever had doubts about being in Post-secondary?
Why do you think some authors decide to say this closer to the end rather than a different part of the novel?
Why do you think Elena Ferrante chose to include so many characters? Did you find it difficult to keep track of all of the people and subsequent relationships?
What theme or idea (class, friendship, ambitions, family, gender roles) stuck out to you the most?
Reflecting on their experiences, which character do you find yourself relating to more, Elena or Lila? What aspects of their friendship do you find most compelling or relatable, and why?
There are a lot of different narratives that change throughout this story about people, education, and wealth. How do you think that compared to this book, the narrative of friendship has changed over time?
How do you think the narrative of “My Brilliant Friend” would change if it were told from Lila’s perspective instead of Elena’s?
What are your predictions for the events in the next books in the series?
