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Female Freedom and The Neapolitan Novels (Part 1)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2021

Sam Shpall
Sam Shpall*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, The University of Sydney, Quadrangle Building, A14, NSW2006Australia
*
Corresponding author. sam.shpall@sydney.edu.au
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Abstract

This essay begins to develop a philosophical interpretation of Elena Ferrante's L'amica geniale, a work of fiction that is known in English as The Neapolitan Novels. My ultimate aim is to explore the work's ambitious moral psychology, and particularly its subtle conceptualization of women's path to freedom. I begin by reconstructing some of the main ideas of Italian difference feminism as they are expressed in the texts of the Milan Women's Bookstore Collective—texts that are controversial milestones of Italian social theory, yet are relatively unknown outside of Italy. I then show how these ideas provide a useful frame of reference for interpreters of Ferrante's novel. This discussion sets up a more extended analysis (in part 2 of this essay) of the special status of Lila Cerullo, her strange condition of smarginatura (“dissolving boundaries”), and the import of her puzzling earthquake speech.

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Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , Fall 2021 , pp. 676 - 701
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Hypatia, a Nonprofit Corporation

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