Napoli planetaria: il rione-mondo di Elena Ferrante

Gianni Turchetta, Università degli Studi di Milano

 

giovanni.turchetta(at)unimi.it

 

Abstract: The international success of My Brilliant Friend shows that the apparently highly typical and "local" space of Naples is perceived by readers as a space similar to many other places in the world. The semantic force of the image of Naples is a fundamental aspect of a narrative that knows how to combine the appeal of the plot with the construction of a dense network of symbols. Ferrante’s own statements allow us to recognize that the decision to represent Naples as an exemplary place for globalization is intentional. But this choice is effective and functional because in recent decades Naples has, in fact, been losing many of its peculiarities, transforming itself into a kind of exemplary laboratory of new social dynamics, in which the survival of the archaic and a movement towards a savage modernization live side by side.