Elena Ferrante’s saga L’amica geniale (My Brilliant Friend, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015) tells the story of a poor neighbourhood of Naples from the post-war to the present day. Drawing on a sociological analysis of the living conditions that characterise the setting of the novel (e.g. social exclusion, ghettoisation, widespread illegality, endemic violence, women’s oppression), we explore and criticise the ethnographic imagination that informs the author’s representation of the local dynamics of urban poverty. The criticism builds on the comparison with other authors whose’ fiction played a crucial role in the representation of Naples’ urban poor: Giuseppe Marotta, Curzio Malaparte, and Anna Maria Ortese.
My brilliant city: Naples, urban poverty and the 'ethnographic imagination' of Elena Ferrante
Francesco Sielo;
2023
Abstract
Elena Ferrante’s saga L’amica geniale (My Brilliant Friend, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015) tells the story of a poor neighbourhood of Naples from the post-war to the present day. Drawing on a sociological analysis of the living conditions that characterise the setting of the novel (e.g. social exclusion, ghettoisation, widespread illegality, endemic violence, women’s oppression), we explore and criticise the ethnographic imagination that informs the author’s representation of the local dynamics of urban poverty. The criticism builds on the comparison with other authors whose’ fiction played a crucial role in the representation of Naples’ urban poor: Giuseppe Marotta, Curzio Malaparte, and Anna Maria Ortese.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
