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(2016) The works of Elena Ferrante, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Metamorphosis and rebirth
Greek mythology and initiation rites in elena ferrante's troubling love
Tiziana de Rogatis
pp. 185-206
The chapter interprets Troubling Love in the light of the myth of Demeter and Persephone and the rites connected to it. The thesis is that Ferrante was inspired by this myth and these rites, considering them in combination a vehicle that is able to represent feminine identity as a fabric in which the ancient and the contemporary are inextricably entwined. The argument is not limited to the relationship of descent that links myth, rites, and the novel but goes further to articulate a more general value of convergence and continuity between these three forms of imaginative expression and their representations of feminine identity. Finally, it interprets the protagonist's journey—which is both a physical journey across Naples and a psychological journey into the past of her own repressed memories—from a psychoanalytical perspective.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-57580-7_8
Full citation:
de Rogatis, T. (2016)., Metamorphosis and rebirth: Greek mythology and initiation rites in elena ferrante's troubling love, in G. Russo Bullaro & S. V. Love (eds.), The works of Elena Ferrante, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 185-206.
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