Feministyczne topografie miasta – Neapol Eleny Ferrante

Abstract

The paper examines the role of Naples in Elena Ferrante’s works. The regional capital of Campania serves here as a topographical frame for the protagonists’ experiences and, at the same time, as a plane onto which Ferrante inscribes fundamental dimensions of her work, related to autobiography, identity, intertextuality and artistic craft. Central to such poetics of space is the inseparable relationship between Naples, women’s experiences and creativity. The essence of this relationship is defined by such notions as labyrinth, porous, ghettoization, and “smarginatura”. Rewriting the city from the perspective of women’s sensitivity and memory subversively deconstructs its androcentric and oppressive qualities, emphasizing women’s agency as dux feminae facti, marking their own spaces in the urban and artistic topography.