Elena Ferrante as World Literature

Description

Elena Ferrante as World Literature is the first English-language monograph on contemporary Italian writer Elena Ferrante, whose four Neapolitan Novels (2011-2014) became a global phenomenon. The book proposes that Ferrante constructs a theory of feminine experience which serves as the scaffolding for her own literary practice. Drawing on the writer’s entire textual corpus to date, Stiliana Milkova examines the linguistic, psychical, and corporeal-spatial realities that constitute the female subjects Ferrante has theorized. At stake in Ferrante’s theory/practice is the articulation of a feminine subjectivity that emerges from the structures of patriarchal oppression and that resists, bypasses, or subverts these very structures. Milkova’s inquiry proceeds from Ferrante’s theory of frantumaglia and smarginatura to explore mechanisms for controlling and containing the female body and mind, forms of female authorship and creativity, and corporeal negotiations of urban topography and patriarchal space. Elena Ferrante as World Literature sets forth an interdisciplinary framework for understanding Ferrante's texts and offers an account of her literary and cultural significance today. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgments Chronology of Elena Ferrante’s Works and Abbreviations Used Chapter 1: Introduction: P Elena Ferrante, World Literature, and the Work of Literary Translation World Literature and the Creation of Elena Ferrante Ferrante’s Feminine Imaginary Ferrante’s Female Genealogies The Translator as Seamstress: Figures of Translation from the Periphery to the Center Elena Ferrante as World Literature: An Overview Chapter 2: Frantumaglia and Smarginatura: The Borders of a Universal Feminine Imaginary Incisions and Inscriptions of the Body The Parameters of Frantumaglia Smarginatura in the Neapolitan Novels The “Mothers” of Smarginatura Women Who Write Chapter 3: Binding and Unbinding the Maternal Body and Voice Desire and Disgust for the Mother Conflations and Inversions: Mothers, Daughters, Dolls Enclosing the Maternal Body: Cellars, Locked Apartments, Clothes Laughing Bodies and Grotesque Gestures Dead Mothers and Corporeal Flows Chapter 4: Outside the Frame: The Aesthetics of Female Creativity and Authorship Inside the Frame: The (Nude) Female Body-as-Parts Inside the Frame: Mirrors, Collages, Still Lifes Outside the Frame: Creating a Female Artistic Legacy The Neapolitan Novels and Female Friendship, Writing, Authorship Chapter 5: Mapping Urban Feminine Topographies Walking the Streets of Topographic Memory in Troubling Love Symbolic and Literal Labyrinth in the Neapolitan Novels From Naples to Turin: Urban Itineraries of Abandonment Epilogue: Reverse Maps, Familial Objects, and Open Frames in The Lying Life of Adults Mapping in Reverse Familial Objects Open Frames Notes Works Cited Index