WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.359 Okay, let's unpack this. We are diving into one 00:00:02.359 --> 00:00:05.759 of the most, I mean, just compelling and confounding 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:08.380 paradoxes in modern literature. Absolutely. Achieving 00:00:08.380 --> 00:00:11.320 massive, you know, era -defining fame and critical 00:00:11.320 --> 00:00:14.000 canonization. Right, while at the same time... 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.339 While simultaneously insisting on this radical, 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:21.160 almost militant anonymity. And we are talking, 00:00:21.239 --> 00:00:23.399 of course, about the elusive Italian novelist 00:00:23.399 --> 00:00:26.179 Elena Ferrante. It truly is a singular case study, 00:00:26.280 --> 00:00:29.460 isn't it? You have this writer. named one of 00:00:29.460 --> 00:00:32.020 Time's 100 most influential people back in 2016. 00:00:32.780 --> 00:00:37.079 Her work defines contemporary fiction. To the 00:00:37.079 --> 00:00:39.560 point where the New York Times recently ranked 00:00:39.560 --> 00:00:42.200 one of her books as the single best book of the 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:44.560 21st century. The number one book. Number one. 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:47.420 Yet the person behind the name, Elena Ferrante, 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:49.899 remains completely, and I think you have to say 00:00:49.899 --> 00:00:52.539 successfully, hidden. And that tension. That's 00:00:52.539 --> 00:00:55.560 the central hook for me. The refusal to participate 00:00:55.560 --> 00:00:58.359 in the machinery of celebrity. Yeah. The sheer 00:00:58.359 --> 00:01:00.939 cultural impact of someone who just fundamentally 00:01:00.939 --> 00:01:04.060 refuses to be culturally present. And she has 00:01:04.060 --> 00:01:07.040 a very clear philosophy that drives this. It's 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:10.060 not just a whim. Not at all. She stated that 00:01:10.060 --> 00:01:13.239 anonymity is absolutely essential to her process. 00:01:13.540 --> 00:01:16.040 And she makes this bold sort of aesthetic claim 00:01:16.040 --> 00:01:18.439 that, and I think it's worth quoting. Go for 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:21.540 it. Books, once they are written, have no need 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:24.640 of their authors. Wow. I mean, that's a challenge, 00:01:24.739 --> 00:01:26.340 right? It's a challenge issued to the entire 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:29.480 system. It forces the reader and, you know, maybe 00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:31.700 more importantly, the critics, the prize committees. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:34.459 The whole marketing apparatus. The entire marketing 00:01:34.459 --> 00:01:36.819 apparatus of the publishing industry to confront 00:01:36.819 --> 00:01:39.340 the text and only the text. You can't filter 00:01:39.340 --> 00:01:43.079 her work through a biography or a public persona 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:47.260 or some book tour narrative. Nope. It is conceptually, 00:01:47.260 --> 00:01:49.900 at least, an attempt at achieving pure literature. 00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:53.079 Though, as we're about to discuss, the public 00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:56.579 and the media have relentlessly tried to fail 00:01:56.579 --> 00:01:58.859 that experiment. Oh, absolutely. And that's our 00:01:58.859 --> 00:02:01.400 mission today for you, the listener. We've pulled 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:03.980 together the full chronology of her career, charting 00:02:03.980 --> 00:02:06.180 how her themes evolve. We'll also examine the 00:02:06.180 --> 00:02:08.340 sparse biographical details that we actually 00:02:08.340 --> 00:02:10.620 do know. And then we're going to conduct a deep 00:02:10.620 --> 00:02:13.659 dive into the intense, the controversial, and 00:02:13.659 --> 00:02:16.479 frankly, the ethically debated arguments around 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:19.240 the three major theories of who she really is. 00:02:19.379 --> 00:02:20.979 So before we get into the novels themselves, 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:23.620 we really need to establish the knowns. The ground 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:26.919 rules. Exactly. The actual biography is incredibly 00:02:26.919 --> 00:02:30.280 thin. It's mostly gathered from her own fukered 00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:32.139 statements, you know, in interviews and letters 00:02:32.139 --> 00:02:34.699 over the years. We're dealing with a ghost. But 00:02:34.699 --> 00:02:37.439 a highly specific ghost. Right. So what we know 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:40.520 is minimal. Ferrante is Italian. She writes exclusively 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:43.500 in Italian. Her literary career officially kicked 00:02:43.500 --> 00:02:47.139 off in 1992. And critically, she has stated she 00:02:47.139 --> 00:02:50.319 was born in Naples. Which is so important. Naples 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:52.560 isn't just a setting for her. It's a character. 00:02:53.419 --> 00:02:56.860 A claustrophobic, violent, deeply formative character 00:02:56.860 --> 00:02:59.099 in all of her work. And she's also identified 00:02:59.099 --> 00:03:01.800 herself as the daughter of a seamstress and mentioned 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:04.080 having three sisters. And that is, I mean, truly, 00:03:04.159 --> 00:03:06.319 that's about the extent of the concrete, self 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:08.919 -disclosed biographical detail. Here's the immediate 00:03:08.919 --> 00:03:13.039 contrast, right? Her writing is not simple. It's 00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:17.520 layered. Complex. Incredibly dense. Incredibly 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:20.060 dense with references to classical literature, 00:03:20.340 --> 00:03:24.379 to philosophy, to history. Her prose just carries 00:03:24.379 --> 00:03:27.400 the weight of a highly educated mind. Which has 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:30.139 led critics and scholars to pretty strongly infer 00:03:30.139 --> 00:03:32.560 that she must have completed extensive academic 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:35.939 study. Right. Likely specializing in literature, 00:03:36.199 --> 00:03:39.060 probably classics, just because the breadth of 00:03:39.060 --> 00:03:42.020 her knowledge base is Well, it's far too extensive 00:03:42.020 --> 00:03:44.479 for someone without that kind of formal classical 00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:48.099 training. So we begin with this profile, an Italian 00:03:48.099 --> 00:03:51.020 woman, likely Neapolitan, likely classically 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:54.159 educated, who's been producing this intensely 00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:56.740 psychological and critically lauded fiction for, 00:03:56.860 --> 00:03:59.580 what, over three decades now? All while maintaining 00:03:59.580 --> 00:04:01.879 absolute silence about who she is. It just sets 00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:04.180 the stage perfectly for a career that's defined 00:04:04.180 --> 00:04:06.580 by the secrets her characters keep. Mirroring 00:04:06.580 --> 00:04:08.919 the massive secret she keeps herself. So let's 00:04:08.919 --> 00:04:11.139 jump into that early career, because before the 00:04:11.139 --> 00:04:13.259 Neapolitan Quartet became this global benchmark, 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:15.319 Ferrante was already, I mean, she was already 00:04:15.319 --> 00:04:17.500 establishing herself as a master of these intense 00:04:17.500 --> 00:04:19.680 psychological narratives. Absolutely. Always 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:22.040 centered on the complexities of what you could 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:24.889 call a feminine crisis. And always against that 00:04:24.889 --> 00:04:27.649 evocative and I think oppressive backdrop of 00:04:27.649 --> 00:04:30.589 Naples. Her first novel, Troubling Love, L 'Amour, 00:04:30.589 --> 00:04:33.709 Molesto, which came out in 1992, immediately 00:04:33.709 --> 00:04:36.149 set that tone. That psychological intensity, 00:04:36.449 --> 00:04:39.829 right? The mystery, the deep, often very unsettling 00:04:39.829 --> 00:04:42.660 family secrets. It really announced a voice that 00:04:42.660 --> 00:04:45.500 was completely unafraid to expose the uncomfortable 00:04:45.500 --> 00:04:48.560 truths of womanhood. And this debut, it started 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:50.639 small. It actually came from a short story, didn't 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:53.180 it? Delia's Elevator. It did, but the novel form 00:04:53.180 --> 00:04:55.699 really allowed her to expand and explore the 00:04:55.699 --> 00:04:59.000 central mystery. The protagonist, Delia, she 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:01.339 returns home to Naples. Following the incredibly 00:05:01.339 --> 00:05:04.019 bizarre and mysterious death of her mother. And 00:05:04.019 --> 00:05:06.100 the nature of that death is so crucial because 00:05:06.100 --> 00:05:08.420 it's just a brilliant piece of symbolism. Tell 00:05:08.420 --> 00:05:11.139 us about it. Delia's mother, a poor, working 00:05:11.139 --> 00:05:13.720 -class seamstress, is found drowned on an Italian 00:05:13.720 --> 00:05:16.379 beach wearing only one single item of luxury 00:05:16.379 --> 00:05:18.579 clothing. Which is a high -end designer bra. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:21.879 Exactly. This strange, contradictory detail is 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:25.040 what propels Delia's investigation into her mother's 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:27.259 life. A life that turns out to be just steeped 00:05:27.259 --> 00:05:29.910 in trauma and secrets. And a lifetime of hidden 00:05:29.910 --> 00:05:32.870 aspirations and compromises, all driven by class 00:05:32.870 --> 00:05:35.790 and gender expectations in Naples. That clash. 00:05:36.110 --> 00:05:38.209 I mean, the mundane reality of the seamstress 00:05:38.209 --> 00:05:41.569 and the impossible luxury of the bra. Just speaks 00:05:41.569 --> 00:05:43.949 volumes, doesn't it? It says everything about 00:05:43.949 --> 00:05:46.350 the buried aspirations and shame that characterize 00:05:46.350 --> 00:05:48.769 her female protagonists. And the novel was a 00:05:48.769 --> 00:05:51.250 success right away, at least in Italy. Oh, a 00:05:51.250 --> 00:05:53.769 critical success. It secured the prestigious 00:05:53.769 --> 00:05:57.290 premio Pursida Isola di Arturo El Samorante. 00:05:57.610 --> 00:06:01.430 A major, albeit anonymous, literary voice had 00:06:01.430 --> 00:06:03.689 arrived. And it was a voice focused squarely 00:06:03.689 --> 00:06:06.550 on the dark, complex interior lives of women. 00:06:06.670 --> 00:06:09.149 And that intense focus on what you might call 00:06:09.149 --> 00:06:11.829 domestic devastation. It just solidified a decade 00:06:11.829 --> 00:06:14.750 later with her second novel. In 2002, The Days 00:06:14.750 --> 00:06:18.610 of Abandonment. If Troubling Love was about inherited 00:06:18.610 --> 00:06:21.189 trauma, this one, I mean, this is maybe the most 00:06:21.189 --> 00:06:23.610 visceral portrayal of immediate, sudden emotional 00:06:23.610 --> 00:06:26.490 collapse in her entire early body of work. It 00:06:26.490 --> 00:06:28.949 is a devastating read. It centers on Olga, whose 00:06:28.949 --> 00:06:31.389 life, which seems stable, just completely collapses. 00:06:31.670 --> 00:06:33.930 When her husband of 15 years abruptly leaves 00:06:33.930 --> 00:06:36.000 her. And what makes it so painful is just the 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:38.199 banality of the reason he just leaves her for 00:06:38.199 --> 00:06:40.879 a younger woman. And this sends Olga, a mother, 00:06:41.230 --> 00:06:42.589 you know, live in this middle class existence, 00:06:42.790 --> 00:06:46.209 into a catastrophic, just unrecoverable downward 00:06:46.209 --> 00:06:49.350 spiral. It completely rips apart the domestic 00:06:49.350 --> 00:06:51.709 facade. And this is where we see Ferrante's growing 00:06:51.709 --> 00:06:54.629 confidence in psychological detail. The narrative 00:06:54.629 --> 00:06:56.850 tracks Olga's complete mental flagmentation. 00:06:57.170 --> 00:06:59.129 She becomes haunted by these visceral visions 00:06:59.129 --> 00:07:01.689 of abandoned women she saw as a child. Which 00:07:01.689 --> 00:07:04.230 reinforces that her present despair is rooted 00:07:04.230 --> 00:07:06.930 in this cultural history of female helplessness. 00:07:07.149 --> 00:07:09.350 Her spiral isn't just grief either, it's terrifying. 00:07:09.879 --> 00:07:13.019 It includes hallucination, genuine fear of being 00:07:13.019 --> 00:07:15.360 poisoned by her neighbor. And as the sources 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:17.660 noted, her descent into what they called grim 00:07:17.660 --> 00:07:20.279 sexual self -abasement with her aging neighbor. 00:07:20.420 --> 00:07:23.100 That kind of unrelenting emotional and carnal 00:07:23.100 --> 00:07:26.490 candor. That refusal to sanitize female despair. 00:07:26.769 --> 00:07:29.029 That is exactly what Janet Maslin highlighted 00:07:29.029 --> 00:07:31.610 in her review for The New York Times. She referenced 00:07:31.610 --> 00:07:34.589 Simone de Beauvoir's classic work on female existential 00:07:34.589 --> 00:07:37.449 suffering, The Woman Destroyed. The prose is 00:07:37.449 --> 00:07:39.810 so controlled, yet the subject matter is just 00:07:39.810 --> 00:07:43.149 pure chaos and agony. That tension is key to 00:07:43.149 --> 00:07:45.750 her style. She writes about devastation with 00:07:45.750 --> 00:07:48.470 an almost clinical precision. And this exploration 00:07:48.470 --> 00:07:50.790 of the profound difficulties of traditional female 00:07:50.790 --> 00:07:53.850 roles. It continues to shift with her third novel, 00:07:54.009 --> 00:07:57.329 The Lost Daughter. Mafilia Oscura from 2006. 00:07:57.949 --> 00:08:00.670 Here, the thematic focus moves from being the 00:08:00.670 --> 00:08:02.970 one who is abandoned. To exploring the consequences 00:08:02.970 --> 00:08:05.709 of being the one who abandons. Exactly. The protagonist, 00:08:06.089 --> 00:08:08.730 Lita, is on what seems like a relaxing vacation 00:08:08.730 --> 00:08:11.670 on an Italian beach. But her peace is disrupted 00:08:11.670 --> 00:08:15.339 when she becomes... intensely, almost unhealthily 00:08:15.339 --> 00:08:17.860 obsessed with the nearby family, particularly 00:08:17.860 --> 00:08:20.399 the young mother and her daughter. And this external 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:23.000 observation, it acts as a trigger. It forces 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:25.740 Lita to confront her own past as a young mother. 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:28.160 And the core conflict that's revealed is Lita's 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:30.600 previously hidden history. She reflects on the 00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:33.759 genuine existential despair and exhaustion she 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:35.919 felt as a young mother, a feeling so profound 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:38.220 and consuming that it led her to make a completely 00:08:38.220 --> 00:08:41.139 unconventional and really taboo decision. She 00:08:41.139 --> 00:08:43.440 left her family for a shocking. two years this 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:46.519 novel just tackles the internal unmentionable 00:08:46.519 --> 00:08:50.279 reality that motherhood can feel like a devastating 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:53.220 psychological prison it's an idea that's so rarely 00:08:53.220 --> 00:08:55.740 tackled in fiction with that level of stark honesty 00:08:55.740 --> 00:08:58.669 so you have this trilogy of early works, all 00:08:58.669 --> 00:09:01.690 deeply rooted in Naples, all exploring the intersection 00:09:01.690 --> 00:09:05.330 of class, gender, motherhood and secret trauma. 00:09:05.470 --> 00:09:07.950 And they show the exponential growth of her narrative 00:09:07.950 --> 00:09:10.549 power. You can gauge this power by its lasting 00:09:10.549 --> 00:09:12.669 legacy. Right. The Lost Daughter was adapted 00:09:12.669 --> 00:09:16.309 into that highly acclaimed 2021 film. Which was 00:09:16.309 --> 00:09:19.370 the directorial debut of actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:22.820 It earned huge critical success, including the 00:09:22.820 --> 00:09:25.879 USC Scripter Award, which just validated the 00:09:25.879 --> 00:09:28.600 narrative universal emotional resonance. So in 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:32.419 2006, Ferrante had already produced three intensely 00:09:32.419 --> 00:09:34.820 intimate, critically successful novels that just 00:09:34.820 --> 00:09:37.059 utterly challenged the traditional literary view 00:09:37.059 --> 00:09:39.200 of female domesticity. All while maintaining 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:41.940 her airtight secrecy. And this growing fame, 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:43.799 it led to a compromise of sorts. That's right. 00:09:44.279 --> 00:09:46.940 Having explored the raw honesty Ferrante achieves 00:09:46.940 --> 00:09:48.960 in her fiction, it is fascinating to see that 00:09:48.960 --> 00:09:51.299 honesty partially applied to her own life. It 00:09:51.299 --> 00:09:54.059 gave us a fleeting, fragmented look behind the 00:09:54.059 --> 00:09:56.460 curtain. With the publication of her first nonfiction 00:09:56.460 --> 00:10:00.600 work, La Frontomalia, published in 2003, right 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:02.820 in the middle of this early run. It was eventually 00:10:02.820 --> 00:10:05.940 translated into English as Frontomalia, A Writer's 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:08.970 Journey in 2016. And the title itself is just 00:10:08.970 --> 00:10:11.990 a perfect piece of synthesis. It is. It's a Neapolitan 00:10:11.990 --> 00:10:15.330 dialect word that translates roughly to a scattering 00:10:15.330 --> 00:10:17.909 of fragments or broken pieces. It's a term her 00:10:17.909 --> 00:10:19.870 mother used to describe feelings of internal 00:10:19.870 --> 00:10:22.889 chaos and fragmentation. A perfect description 00:10:22.889 --> 00:10:25.610 for the lives of her protagonists and, you know, 00:10:25.629 --> 00:10:28.009 maybe her own public presentation. And the book 00:10:28.009 --> 00:10:30.759 is a collection, right? It is. Letters she exchanged 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:33.200 with her publisher, private essays, reflections, 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:36.179 and some very selective interviews. It gave the 00:10:36.179 --> 00:10:38.419 public just enough information to keep the mystery 00:10:38.419 --> 00:10:40.860 intriguing. Without actually revealing anything. 00:10:41.100 --> 00:10:43.840 Exactly. And it was so popular that it was republished 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:46.919 in expanded versions in 2007 and again in 2015, 00:10:47.259 --> 00:10:49.960 growing right alongside her fame. And within 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:52.179 those collected letters, we start to glean the 00:10:52.179 --> 00:10:56.179 few widely accepted facts. James Wood. who reviewed 00:10:56.179 --> 00:10:58.879 the collection, he summarized the key takeaways. 00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:01.779 She confirmed she grew up in Naples, so that 00:11:01.779 --> 00:11:04.720 centrality of setting was locked in. She confirmed 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:06.960 she has a classics degree, which validated the 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:09.200 critical assumption based on her dense literary 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:11.919 knowledge. And she also admitted to having lived 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:15.360 outside Italy for periods, which suggests a broader 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:17.960 cultural view than just her Neapolitan upbringing. 00:11:18.490 --> 00:11:20.710 She also explicitly referred to being a mother 00:11:20.710 --> 00:11:23.169 in those letters. Which adds another layer of 00:11:23.169 --> 00:11:25.230 resonance to her fiction dealing with the burdens 00:11:25.230 --> 00:11:28.049 and joys of motherhood. But maybe the most telling 00:11:28.049 --> 00:11:30.610 detail about her daily professional life was 00:11:30.610 --> 00:11:33.110 this one specific statement she made. Which was? 00:11:33.330 --> 00:11:36.149 I study, I translate, I teach, in addition to 00:11:36.149 --> 00:11:39.570 writing. And this one line, this became an absolutely 00:11:39.570 --> 00:11:41.850 crucial clue for the investigative reporters 00:11:41.850 --> 00:11:45.070 and scholars who later tried to unmask her. It 00:11:45.070 --> 00:11:46.929 gave them a professional profile to focus on. 00:11:46.990 --> 00:11:48.929 It gave the investigators something concrete 00:11:48.929 --> 00:11:51.629 to chase. They were looking for an educated woman, 00:11:51.769 --> 00:11:54.409 a mother, intimately involved in academic or 00:11:54.409 --> 00:11:57.009 literary work. Based in, or at least very familiar 00:11:57.009 --> 00:11:59.330 with Naples, it's the only self -portrait we 00:11:59.330 --> 00:12:02.210 have, and it's composed entirely of these professional 00:12:02.210 --> 00:12:04.809 and geographic fragments. And just to round out 00:12:04.809 --> 00:12:06.730 this period, we should mention she also published 00:12:06.730 --> 00:12:10.309 a short children's novel in 2007. Right, La Spiaggia 00:12:10.309 --> 00:12:13.009 di Notte, or The Beach at Night, the simple, 00:12:13.110 --> 00:12:16.009 poignant story of a forgotten doll. It just demonstrates 00:12:16.009 --> 00:12:19.110 her range, even within her self -imposed constraints. 00:12:19.409 --> 00:12:21.389 Okay, so if the early novels were the foundation, 00:12:21.730 --> 00:12:24.590 showing her mastery of the intimate psychological 00:12:24.590 --> 00:12:26.750 portrait... Then the four books that followed 00:12:26.750 --> 00:12:29.169 were The Earthquake. Exactly. The Earthquake 00:12:29.169 --> 00:12:32.769 that secured her global literary legacy. Let's 00:12:32.769 --> 00:12:34.769 move to the literary milestone that just secured 00:12:34.769 --> 00:12:37.879 her status as a global phenomenon. the Neapolitan 00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:40.659 novels. This quartet defined her career and elevated 00:12:40.659 --> 00:12:43.019 her work to a whole different echelon. Absolutely. 00:12:43.299 --> 00:12:45.320 The series was published sequentially between 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:49.580 2011 and 2015, and the sheer scale is, it's epic. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:52.360 It moves far beyond the single protagonist focus 00:12:52.360 --> 00:12:55.019 of her earlier work. It follows the sprawling, 00:12:55.019 --> 00:12:57.960 interconnected life story of two perceptive and 00:12:57.960 --> 00:13:01.559 frankly intelligent girls, Lila and Lenu. Both 00:13:01.559 --> 00:13:04.759 born into poverty in Naples in 1944. And the 00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:07.840 narrative covers over 60 years. It charts the 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:10.500 evolution of their complex, often toxic, always 00:13:10.500 --> 00:13:13.299 brilliant friendship. The core tension of the 00:13:13.299 --> 00:13:16.360 entire series is that push and pull between these 00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:18.320 two central figures. And how they both attempt 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:20.480 to define themselves and carve out successful 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:23.500 lives against what the sources describe as a 00:13:23.500 --> 00:13:26.730 violent and stultifying culture. The oppressive 00:13:26.730 --> 00:13:30.210 poverty, the entrenched organized crime, the 00:13:30.210 --> 00:13:32.750 pervasive toxic masculinity of their neighborhood 00:13:32.750 --> 00:13:35.250 in post -war Naples. It's all there. It's the 00:13:35.250 --> 00:13:38.029 ultimate scaled up Bildungsroman, but it's twinned. 00:13:38.169 --> 00:13:41.210 You have Lenu or Elena Greco, who is the narrator. 00:13:41.470 --> 00:13:43.450 She seeks escape through education and literature, 00:13:43.710 --> 00:13:46.289 achieving a kind of mainstream success. And then 00:13:46.289 --> 00:13:49.230 you have Lila, Raffaella Cerullo, the true raw 00:13:49.230 --> 00:13:52.070 genius who is trapped by her economic and emotional 00:13:52.070 --> 00:13:54.730 environment, but possesses this transcendent 00:13:54.730 --> 00:13:57.389 power that... Lenu can never quite access or 00:13:57.389 --> 00:13:59.710 emulate. Their friendship is a constant battleground 00:13:59.710 --> 00:14:02.809 for class, for intellect, for loyalty, for identity. 00:14:02.950 --> 00:14:04.950 The scope is just immense. So let's just list 00:14:04.950 --> 00:14:07.110 the four volumes that make up this literary epic 00:14:07.110 --> 00:14:10.070 for everyone. First, My Brilliant Friend from 00:14:10.070 --> 00:14:13.370 2011. Then, The Story of a New Name in 2013. 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:16.460 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay in 2014. And 00:14:16.460 --> 00:14:18.259 it concludes with The Story of the Lost Child 00:14:18.259 --> 00:14:20.860 in 2015. And the critical reception for this 00:14:20.860 --> 00:14:23.580 quartet was, I mean, it was overwhelming. It 00:14:23.580 --> 00:14:26.539 quickly moved beyond typical literary acclaim. 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:28.379 It established itself as a cultural phenomenon. 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:31.320 For sure. The final book, The Story of the Lost 00:14:31.320 --> 00:14:34.120 Child, was nominated for Italy's most prestigious 00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:37.399 literary honor, the Striga Prize. It also got 00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:39.320 nominated for the International Booker Prize 00:14:39.320 --> 00:14:42.860 and was named one of The New York Times' 10 Best 00:14:42.860 --> 00:14:45.000 Books. books of 2015. But here's where it gets 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:47.440 really interesting. And this confirms her lasting, 00:14:47.580 --> 00:14:50.600 defining impact. In 2024, The New York Times 00:14:50.600 --> 00:14:53.399 undertook a major reassessment of the current 00:14:53.399 --> 00:14:56.019 literary landscape. And they ranked My Brilliant 00:14:56.019 --> 00:14:58.679 Friend as the number one best book, the definitive 00:14:58.679 --> 00:15:01.559 number one in its list of 100 best books of the 00:15:01.559 --> 00:15:04.100 21st century. Which is just staggering. For a 00:15:04.100 --> 00:15:06.840 book published just over a decade ago to be immediately 00:15:06.840 --> 00:15:09.240 canonized in that way, placed above thousands 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:11.059 of other candidates. I mean, what does that tell 00:15:11.059 --> 00:15:13.029 us about the current critical landscape? Well, 00:15:13.070 --> 00:15:16.149 critics usually resist canonizing work so quickly. 00:15:16.570 --> 00:15:19.350 It takes decades for true perspective to set 00:15:19.350 --> 00:15:21.649 in. Exactly. I think it just speaks to the immediate, 00:15:21.870 --> 00:15:25.029 visceral relevance of the themes. Vulture also 00:15:25.029 --> 00:15:27.629 listed the overall series as one of the 12 new 00:15:27.629 --> 00:15:31.049 classics since the year 2000. It became the yardstick 00:15:31.049 --> 00:15:33.700 by which contemporary fiction was measured? And 00:15:33.700 --> 00:15:35.500 not because it was trendy, but because it tapped 00:15:35.500 --> 00:15:38.039 into something timeless about female ambition 00:15:38.039 --> 00:15:40.440 and limitation. Alyssa Chappelle, reviewing the 00:15:40.440 --> 00:15:42.519 final book, captured this perfectly. She just 00:15:42.519 --> 00:15:45.759 said, this is Ferrante at the height of her brilliance. 00:15:45.879 --> 00:15:48.200 And that brilliance, it's rooted in the thematic 00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:50.379 richness and the sheer breadth of the narrative. 00:15:50.659 --> 00:15:52.720 Roger Cohen in the New York Review of Books, 00:15:52.879 --> 00:15:55.820 he synthesized the key achievement. He noted 00:15:55.820 --> 00:15:58.399 the quartet is both introspective and sweeping. 00:15:59.049 --> 00:16:01.850 personal and political. And that dual focus is 00:16:01.850 --> 00:16:04.990 so rare and so difficult to execute well. And 00:16:04.990 --> 00:16:07.309 that political scope is fundamental to understanding 00:16:07.309 --> 00:16:09.730 the environment that Lila and Lenu exist in. 00:16:09.870 --> 00:16:12.950 Right. The narrative covers more than 60 decades 00:16:12.950 --> 00:16:15.789 of Italian history and directly links the two 00:16:15.789 --> 00:16:17.830 women's personal lives and their life choices 00:16:17.830 --> 00:16:21.350 to Italy's immense historical upheavals. We're 00:16:21.350 --> 00:16:24.679 talking about poverty, class warfare. the revolutionary 00:16:24.679 --> 00:16:27.120 fervor that swept the country. Specifically, 00:16:27.299 --> 00:16:29.500 the sources mentioned the revolutionary violence 00:16:29.500 --> 00:16:32.320 of the leftist Red Brigades and the rise of radical 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:34.779 feminism in Italy. And for context, you know, 00:16:34.779 --> 00:16:37.519 the Red Brigades were an Italian Marxist -Leninist 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:40.440 terrorist organization active mainly in the 70s 00:16:40.440 --> 00:16:43.240 and 80s. Their goal was to force the Italian 00:16:43.240 --> 00:16:45.799 state into revolutionary action through violence. 00:16:46.379 --> 00:16:49.200 kidnappings, assassinations. They created a nationwide 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:52.360 state of anxiety, political polarization, and 00:16:52.360 --> 00:16:55.320 chaos. And by weaving their actions, the protests, 00:16:55.580 --> 00:16:58.259 the rise of feminism, into the personal lives 00:16:58.259 --> 00:17:01.179 of Lila and Lanou. Whose family members often 00:17:01.179 --> 00:17:03.980 align with different conflicting political or 00:17:03.980 --> 00:17:06.420 even criminal factions. Ferrante ensures that 00:17:06.420 --> 00:17:08.200 their personal struggle for identity becomes 00:17:08.200 --> 00:17:10.680 an accurate, high -stakes reflection of the national 00:17:10.680 --> 00:17:12.950 narrative. And the growing popularity of the 00:17:12.950 --> 00:17:15.490 series, especially among female readers and highly 00:17:15.490 --> 00:17:18.349 respected female writers. Zadie Smith, Jhumpa 00:17:18.349 --> 00:17:21.730 Lahiri are cited as major fans. That popularity 00:17:21.730 --> 00:17:24.009 is rooted in the way the work describes domestic 00:17:24.009 --> 00:17:26.549 experiences that are often, and I'm quoting here, 00:17:26.730 --> 00:17:29.869 underexplored in fiction. Specifically, experiences 00:17:29.869 --> 00:17:32.970 like vivid sexual jealousy, deep -seated shame, 00:17:33.230 --> 00:17:36.369 the quiet sacrifices women make. Ferrante refuses 00:17:36.369 --> 00:17:38.789 to flinch from the messiness and intensity of 00:17:38.789 --> 00:17:41.650 these domestic and internal conflicts. She provides 00:17:41.650 --> 00:17:44.710 this unvarnished voice to experiences many readers 00:17:44.710 --> 00:17:47.329 recognize in their own internal lives, but rarely 00:17:47.329 --> 00:17:50.230 see articulated so candidly in literature. And 00:17:50.230 --> 00:17:52.109 this is why the series has been described as 00:17:52.109 --> 00:17:55.150 euphorically feminine. It's not just about portraying 00:17:55.150 --> 00:17:57.109 suffering. Not at all. It's about portraying 00:17:57.109 --> 00:18:00.329 the immense, complicated power and agency that 00:18:00.329 --> 00:18:03.230 exists within female bonds, intellect, and sheer 00:18:03.230 --> 00:18:06.410 will, often in the face of deep, pervasive male 00:18:06.410 --> 00:18:09.190 corrosion and societal oppression. Darren Franich 00:18:09.190 --> 00:18:11.730 called the novels the series of the decade. Because 00:18:11.730 --> 00:18:14.170 they so clearly reflected the conflicts of the 00:18:14.170 --> 00:18:22.410 21st century. That phrase, euphorically feminine, 00:18:22.609 --> 00:18:25.769 it just perfectly captures the raw, celebratory, 00:18:25.769 --> 00:18:28.650 yet complicated energy of Leela and Lena's bond. 00:18:29.109 --> 00:18:31.329 A bond that is constantly strained but remains 00:18:31.329 --> 00:18:34.089 the central, defining relationship of their lives. 00:18:34.410 --> 00:18:37.210 More important than any husband or career. And 00:18:37.210 --> 00:18:40.369 critics universally praised the conclusion, which, 00:18:40.410 --> 00:18:42.490 as we know, is often the hardest part of any 00:18:42.490 --> 00:18:45.369 epic series to land. Judith Shulevitz praised 00:18:45.369 --> 00:18:47.930 the final installment for cleverly circling back 00:18:47.930 --> 00:18:50.529 to Lila and Lenu's childhood games, creating 00:18:50.529 --> 00:18:53.950 this powerful sense of cyclical tragedy and closure. 00:18:54.329 --> 00:18:56.289 And Maureen Corrigan sealed that assessment, 00:18:56.450 --> 00:18:59.480 calling the ending... Perfect devastation. It's 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:01.740 clear that the anonymity wasn't an obstacle to 00:19:01.740 --> 00:19:05.079 her success. No. In fact, by demanding that the 00:19:05.079 --> 00:19:07.559 work stand alone, she amplified the power of 00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:09.700 the characters, leaving only the devastation 00:19:09.700 --> 00:19:11.180 and the brilliance for the reader to reckon with. 00:19:12.359 --> 00:19:14.940 OK, so now we arrive at the central high stakes 00:19:14.940 --> 00:19:17.440 mystery of Elaine Ferrante's career. The big 00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:20.099 one. Why she maintains this radical anonymity 00:19:20.099 --> 00:19:22.539 and the ethically charged, intense efforts the 00:19:22.539 --> 00:19:24.400 media, academics and investigative reporters 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:26.819 have made to unmask her. It really represents 00:19:26.819 --> 00:19:29.400 the modern friction point between an author's 00:19:29.400 --> 00:19:32.519 declared right to privacy. Especially in an age 00:19:32.519 --> 00:19:35.170 of intense public scrutiny. And the public's 00:19:35.170 --> 00:19:39.109 insatiable, almost pathological hunger for biographical 00:19:39.109 --> 00:19:42.269 context to explain genius. And Ferrante herself 00:19:42.269 --> 00:19:45.089 has actually provided dual justifications for 00:19:45.089 --> 00:19:47.410 her secrecy over the years. The first motive 00:19:47.410 --> 00:19:49.799 she shared is quite simple and human. She just 00:19:49.799 --> 00:19:52.160 admitted to shyness. She said, I was frightened 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:53.859 at the thought of having to come out of my shell. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:56.900 Which is a perfectly understandable reason for 00:19:56.900 --> 00:19:59.559 a non -celebrity to want to avoid the intense 00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:02.039 global spotlight that comes with that level of 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:04.940 success. But the deeper reason, the more philosophical 00:20:04.940 --> 00:20:08.640 one, is what she continues to champion. She transformed 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:11.500 a personal preference into an aesthetic principle. 00:20:12.019 --> 00:20:14.700 Arguing that anonymity is a precondition for 00:20:14.700 --> 00:20:17.220 her work. and that keeping her physical identity 00:20:17.220 --> 00:20:19.819 and personal life out of the public square is 00:20:19.819 --> 00:20:22.440 key to her writing process. She describes this 00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:24.700 feeling so profoundly in her letters. She said, 00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:26.960 Once I knew that the completed book would make 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:29.380 its way in the world without me, it made me see 00:20:29.380 --> 00:20:31.599 something new about writing. I felt as though 00:20:31.599 --> 00:20:34.579 I had released the words from myself. Free from 00:20:34.579 --> 00:20:37.500 the constraints of her physical, celebrity -bound 00:20:37.500 --> 00:20:40.059 presence. That is a statement of artistic liberation. 00:20:40.700 --> 00:20:43.640 It's a refusal to allow the writer's persona 00:20:43.640 --> 00:20:46.779 to overshadow the art. But the moment she achieved 00:20:46.779 --> 00:20:49.339 global recognition with the Neapolitan novels, 00:20:49.640 --> 00:20:52.539 her claim became a magnet for ambitious researchers, 00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:56.460 reporters, and linguists. Who viewed her anonymity 00:20:56.460 --> 00:20:59.380 not as a philosophy, but as a puzzle to be solved. 00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:01.660 Exactly. So let's start with theory number one. 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:04.579 This was the philological detective work, which 00:21:04.579 --> 00:21:07.539 was maybe the most academic and traditional approach. 00:21:08.039 --> 00:21:11.259 Right. This was early 2016. The Italian novelist 00:21:11.259 --> 00:21:13.500 and renowned scholar Marco Santagata, a professor 00:21:13.500 --> 00:21:15.960 at the University of Pisa, he published a paper 00:21:15.960 --> 00:21:18.299 detailing his theory. And it was based purely 00:21:18.299 --> 00:21:21.000 on textual evidence. His method was rooted in 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:23.619 philological analysis. So for you, the listener, 00:21:23.859 --> 00:21:26.240 philology is the study of language and historical 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:29.180 sources, seeking to establish authenticity and 00:21:29.180 --> 00:21:32.200 meaning through detailed textual clues. So what 00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:34.599 clues did he focus on? He focused on two things. 00:21:35.109 --> 00:21:38.069 A close study of very specific, intimate details 00:21:38.069 --> 00:21:40.670 about the Pisa cityscape that appear in her novels. 00:21:40.849 --> 00:21:42.690 Details you would only know if you lived there 00:21:42.690 --> 00:21:45.230 at a certain time. Exactly. And second, the author's 00:21:45.230 --> 00:21:47.529 expert, deep -seated knowledge of modern Italian 00:21:47.529 --> 00:21:50.450 politics. And Santagata's conclusion was highly 00:21:50.450 --> 00:21:52.849 specific from this. He concluded that the author 00:21:52.849 --> 00:21:55.029 had to have lived in Pisa but must have left 00:21:55.029 --> 00:21:57.789 by 1966 because the descriptive details matched 00:21:57.789 --> 00:22:00.490 that specific time frame. Based on this profile, 00:22:00.710 --> 00:22:03.849 he identified the probable author as a Neapolitan 00:22:03.849 --> 00:22:06.750 professor. Marcella Marmo. Who studied in Pisa 00:22:06.750 --> 00:22:11.369 from 1964 to 1966. The profile Neapolitan academic 00:22:11.369 --> 00:22:14.430 Pisan connection, it matched perfectly with the 00:22:14.430 --> 00:22:16.910 clues from Frantumalia. A completely compelling 00:22:16.910 --> 00:22:20.150 theory based on literary and biographical triangulation. 00:22:20.329 --> 00:22:22.390 But it was immediately denied, both by Professor 00:22:22.390 --> 00:22:25.589 Marmo and by Ferrante's publisher, EO. So an 00:22:25.589 --> 00:22:28.150 intriguing dead end, which forced the literary 00:22:28.150 --> 00:22:30.890 world to shift away from academic detection to 00:22:30.890 --> 00:22:34.299 something... much more abrasive. A financial 00:22:34.299 --> 00:22:36.759 investigation. That was theory number two, led 00:22:36.759 --> 00:22:38.940 by the investigative reporter Claudio Gatti in 00:22:38.940 --> 00:22:42.059 October 2016. And Gatti's method was not literary 00:22:42.059 --> 00:22:45.079 or linguistic. It was purely forensic. He was 00:22:45.079 --> 00:22:47.259 trying to trace the money trail that massive 00:22:47.259 --> 00:22:49.619 international royalties leave behind. He relied 00:22:49.619 --> 00:22:52.380 on financial records related to real estate transactions, 00:22:52.740 --> 00:22:56.539 looking for discrepancies, and crucially... tracking 00:22:56.539 --> 00:22:59.259 royalty payments. Which, for an author of her 00:22:59.259 --> 00:23:01.680 stature, would be substantial. And this methodology 00:23:01.680 --> 00:23:04.819 led him to a definitive conclusion that Anita 00:23:04.819 --> 00:23:08.039 Raja, a Rome -based translator, was the real 00:23:08.039 --> 00:23:10.579 author behind the pseudonym. And Raja had key 00:23:10.579 --> 00:23:13.299 connections that made her a prime suspect. She 00:23:13.299 --> 00:23:15.299 was known to have worked as a copy editor for 00:23:15.299 --> 00:23:17.900 Ferrante's publisher, EO Publishing. She also 00:23:17.900 --> 00:23:20.900 edited books by Domenico Starnone. Gatti claimed 00:23:20.900 --> 00:23:23.359 the financial trail showed a significant sudden 00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:26.079 increase in payments flowing to Raj's accounts 00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:29.359 that perfectly aligned with the Neapolitan novel's 00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:31.619 global success. And here's where we hit that 00:23:31.619 --> 00:23:34.039 critical thinking moment. Because Gatti's expose 00:23:34.039 --> 00:23:37.059 triggered a massive global controversy regarding 00:23:37.059 --> 00:23:39.960 the ethics of exposure. Or what many critics 00:23:39.960 --> 00:23:42.700 immediately termed doxing, the publication of 00:23:42.700 --> 00:23:45.480 private identity information against the subject's 00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:48.140 will. Many in the literary world viewed the article 00:23:48.140 --> 00:23:51.099 as a fundamental violation of privacy and an 00:23:51.099 --> 00:23:54.539 attack on an artistic choice. They slammed Gaddy. 00:23:54.700 --> 00:23:57.119 They argued that the public's desire for gossip 00:23:57.119 --> 00:23:59.619 does not supersede the artist's right to privacy. 00:23:59.900 --> 00:24:01.920 The novelist Jeanette Winterson was particularly 00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:05.119 fierce in her denunciation. She called the investigation 00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:08.980 malicious and sexist. She argued that the impulse 00:24:08.980 --> 00:24:12.559 to expose Ferrante was rooted in an obsessional 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:15.779 outrage at the success of a writer female. who 00:24:15.779 --> 00:24:18.880 decided to write, publish, and promote her books 00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:21.660 on her own terms. The underlying implication 00:24:21.660 --> 00:24:24.519 being that a powerful, successful woman's ability 00:24:24.519 --> 00:24:27.180 to control her own narrative was viewed as an 00:24:27.180 --> 00:24:29.819 unacceptable challenge to the established, mostly 00:24:29.819 --> 00:24:32.839 male -dominated media system. Gaddy, for his 00:24:32.839 --> 00:24:35.069 part. He defended his actions. He argued that 00:24:35.069 --> 00:24:37.029 Ferrante had relinquished her right to disappear 00:24:37.029 --> 00:24:40.009 by engaging in public dialogue, through interviews 00:24:40.009 --> 00:24:42.430 in frontumalia, and by sometimes offering contradictory 00:24:42.430 --> 00:24:44.470 statements about her life. So he's saying she 00:24:44.470 --> 00:24:46.730 was feeding public interest while hiding? His 00:24:46.730 --> 00:24:48.849 defense was that if you play the anonymity game 00:24:48.849 --> 00:24:50.829 on the world stage, you invite the investigation. 00:24:51.289 --> 00:24:53.970 But the ethical debate remained heated. Does 00:24:53.970 --> 00:24:56.230 selling millions of books mean you forfeit your 00:24:56.230 --> 00:24:58.960 privacy? Or is the fact that she proved one could 00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:01.500 achieve global literary dominance without a face 00:25:01.500 --> 00:25:04.200 the real threat that triggered the attack? Regardless 00:25:04.200 --> 00:25:07.140 of the ethics, the identity of Anita Raja became 00:25:07.140 --> 00:25:09.980 inextricably linked to Ferrante in the public 00:25:09.980 --> 00:25:12.579 mind. But the complexity only deepened with theory 00:25:12.579 --> 00:25:15.799 number three, the linguistic analysis. In September 00:25:15.799 --> 00:25:18.640 2017, just a year after the financial expose, 00:25:18.839 --> 00:25:21.400 a team of scholars, computer scientists, and 00:25:21.400 --> 00:25:23.339 linguists at the University of Padua weighed 00:25:23.339 --> 00:25:25.819 in. Using the most modern methodology available, 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:29.160 pure data science. Their approach was purely 00:25:29.160 --> 00:25:31.839 statistical. It utilized authorship attribution 00:25:31.839 --> 00:25:35.140 models, or AMs. So for you, the listener, AMs 00:25:35.140 --> 00:25:37.440 analyze unconscious, habitual writing patterns. 00:25:37.460 --> 00:25:39.500 Things like the frequency of common function 00:25:39.500 --> 00:25:42.759 words, the A of syntax complexity, average sentence 00:25:42.759 --> 00:25:44.680 length. Things an author does without thinking. 00:25:44.839 --> 00:25:47.500 Exactly. These patterns are often more reliable 00:25:47.500 --> 00:25:50.059 indicators of authorship than plot or theme. 00:25:50.359 --> 00:25:53.259 And the Padua team analyzed a massive corpus. 00:25:53.789 --> 00:25:56.789 150 novels written in Italian by 40 different 00:25:56.789 --> 00:26:00.069 authors. They fed the machine sophisticated attribution 00:26:00.069 --> 00:26:02.349 models against seven of Ferrante's published 00:26:02.349 --> 00:26:04.849 books. And they didn't just analyze Ferrante 00:26:04.849 --> 00:26:07.769 and Raja. They included dozens of other Italian 00:26:07.769 --> 00:26:10.410 contemporary writers to establish a baseline. 00:26:10.710 --> 00:26:13.029 And the computer's highly specific conclusion. 00:26:13.430 --> 00:26:15.829 That Domenico Starnone, Anita Raja's husband, 00:26:16.049 --> 00:26:18.349 who is himself an acclaimed author and journalist, 00:26:18.589 --> 00:26:21.029 was the probable author of the Ferrante novels. 00:26:21.430 --> 00:26:24.160 The stylistic fingerprint. of Starnone's unconscious 00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:27.160 writing habits matched Ferrante's much more closely 00:26:27.160 --> 00:26:29.079 than any of the other samples. This just threw 00:26:29.079 --> 00:26:31.140 maximum doubt onto the financial theory. Right. 00:26:31.220 --> 00:26:33.640 If the prose structure most closely resembles 00:26:33.640 --> 00:26:36.660 Starnone's, does that mean Raja merely handled 00:26:36.660 --> 00:26:38.680 the financial aspects while Starnone was the 00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:40.839 primary ghostwriter? Or was it a collaboration? 00:26:41.549 --> 00:26:44.250 Or was the entire corpus a sophisticated imitation 00:26:44.250 --> 00:26:47.490 designed to mislead? The academic, computer -based 00:26:47.490 --> 00:26:50.750 analysis just completely complicated the neat, 00:26:50.829 --> 00:26:53.230 financially driven conclusion. And throughout 00:26:53.230 --> 00:26:56.069 all this highly gendered speculation, Ferrante 00:26:56.069 --> 00:26:58.450 herself has repeatedly addressed the persistent 00:26:58.450 --> 00:27:01.230 suggestion that the success and power of her 00:27:01.230 --> 00:27:04.799 fiction means she must actually be a man. She 00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:06.799 pointed out to Vanity Fair that questions about 00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:09.019 her gender are rooted in a presumed weakness 00:27:09.019 --> 00:27:11.759 of female writers. That the public can't seem 00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:13.839 to believe a woman could write with such sweeping 00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:16.380 power and ambition unless she had a man's help 00:27:16.380 --> 00:27:19.559 or was a man all along. It's the ultimate irony, 00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:22.240 isn't it? A woman writes the defining fictional 00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:25.819 work about female complexity only to have the 00:27:25.819 --> 00:27:28.619 complexity of her success attributed to a male 00:27:28.619 --> 00:27:31.440 figure. And just for a bit of colorful context 00:27:31.440 --> 00:27:34.049 to all the chaos. We should probably mention 00:27:34.049 --> 00:27:36.650 the famous prankster, Tommaso de Benedetti. An 00:27:36.650 --> 00:27:38.710 Italian journalist known for publishing fake 00:27:38.710 --> 00:27:41.049 celebrity interviews. He jumped into the fray. 00:27:41.150 --> 00:27:43.490 And published a fake interview with Raja on a 00:27:43.490 --> 00:27:45.990 Spanish daily's website, purportedly confirming 00:27:45.990 --> 00:27:48.190 she was Ferrante. And naturally, the publisher 00:27:48.190 --> 00:27:50.789 had to immediately issue a denial, calling it 00:27:50.789 --> 00:27:53.269 a fake. This entire mystery has become a highly 00:27:53.269 --> 00:27:56.710 publicized, multi -methodological circus. Proving 00:27:56.710 --> 00:27:59.069 that the search for the author's identity became 00:27:59.069 --> 00:28:01.950 nearly as famous as the books themselves, despite 00:28:01.950 --> 00:28:04.769 her absolute best efforts to prevent it. So what 00:28:04.769 --> 00:28:06.650 does all this mean for the literature? I mean, 00:28:06.670 --> 00:28:09.609 despite the continuous distracting identity debate, 00:28:09.910 --> 00:28:12.539 Ferrante has continued to write. And her body 00:28:12.539 --> 00:28:15.500 of work has only expanded its literary and visual 00:28:15.500 --> 00:28:18.779 legacy, proving that the words truly do not need 00:28:18.779 --> 00:28:21.599 the author's face. Her first novel after completing 00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:24.240 the monumental quartet, The Lying Life of Adults, 00:28:24.339 --> 00:28:27.710 was published in 2019. It continued her exploration 00:28:27.710 --> 00:28:30.430 of Naples and adolescence, playing with that 00:28:30.430 --> 00:28:32.670 standardized teenage girl coming -of -age structure. 00:28:32.950 --> 00:28:34.990 But infused with her signature psychological 00:28:34.990 --> 00:28:38.349 intensity and focus on a female protagonist reckoning 00:28:38.349 --> 00:28:41.049 with adult deceit. She's also continued to experiment 00:28:41.049 --> 00:28:43.410 with nonfiction formats and her public intellectual 00:28:43.410 --> 00:28:46.329 presence, always maintaining the anonymity. In 00:28:46.329 --> 00:28:49.230 2019, she published Incidental Inventions, which 00:28:49.230 --> 00:28:51.250 was a compilation of the columns she wrote for 00:28:51.250 --> 00:28:53.650 the English newspaper The Guardian. And these 00:28:53.650 --> 00:28:56.539 columns offer short, poignant reflections on 00:28:56.539 --> 00:28:59.279 writing and culture, providing further filtered 00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:02.019 glimpses into her mind. And most recently, her 00:29:02.019 --> 00:29:04.740 work in the margins on the pleasures of reading 00:29:04.740 --> 00:29:07.700 and writing was published in 2022. This collection 00:29:07.700 --> 00:29:10.200 was based on a series of lectures she wrote for 00:29:10.200 --> 00:29:13.559 the prestigious 2021 Umberto Eco Lecture Series 00:29:13.559 --> 00:29:16.349 at the University of Bologna. And what's so fascinating 00:29:16.349 --> 00:29:18.950 about In the Margins is how perfectly it demonstrates 00:29:18.950 --> 00:29:21.769 her philosophy. She wrote the highly intellectual, 00:29:21.970 --> 00:29:24.170 celebrated lectures. But they were read aloud 00:29:24.170 --> 00:29:27.789 by the Italian actress Manuela Mandracchia. Ferrante's 00:29:27.789 --> 00:29:30.230 voice was present in its words, but physically 00:29:30.230 --> 00:29:33.049 absent. She maintained her anonymous presence 00:29:33.049 --> 00:29:35.410 even in a public academic setting established 00:29:35.410 --> 00:29:39.009 in honor of another great reclusive mind, Umberto 00:29:39.009 --> 00:29:41.960 Eco. And beyond the printed word, her narratives 00:29:41.960 --> 00:29:44.680 have proven incredibly adaptable, confirming 00:29:44.680 --> 00:29:47.380 her widespread cultural dominance. Her earliest 00:29:47.380 --> 00:29:49.740 works were quickly optioned, demonstrating the 00:29:49.740 --> 00:29:52.599 inherent drama in her plots. Troubling Love became 00:29:52.599 --> 00:29:55.680 the film Nasty Love in 1995. And The Days of 00:29:55.680 --> 00:29:57.839 Abandonment became a film of the same title in 00:29:57.839 --> 00:30:00.380 2005. And of course, the emotional power of The 00:30:00.380 --> 00:30:02.660 Lost Daughter found tremendous success with Maggie 00:30:02.660 --> 00:30:05.640 Gyllenhaal's 2021 adaptation, earning the USC 00:30:05.640 --> 00:30:08.680 Scripter Award and widespread Oscar buzz. Which 00:30:08.680 --> 00:30:10.940 showed her ability to cross over into American 00:30:10.940 --> 00:30:13.680 prestige cinema. But the truly defining visual 00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:16.980 legacy rests. predictably, with the Neapolitan 00:30:16.980 --> 00:30:20.240 novels. Those books demanded an epic visual treatment 00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:22.400 that could do justice to the decades of history 00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:25.380 and the thousands of emotional intricacies. Yes, 00:30:25.460 --> 00:30:28.299 the 32 -part miniseries My Brilliant Friend was 00:30:28.299 --> 00:30:30.980 an enormous undertaking. It was kindly deduced 00:30:30.980 --> 00:30:34.119 by the Italian networks RAI and Tim Vision and 00:30:34.119 --> 00:30:37.119 the American premium cable network, HBO. The 00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:39.000 first two episodes actually premiered at the 00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:41.420 prestigious Venice Film Festival in 2018. The 00:30:41.420 --> 00:30:43.819 miniseries was a massive critical and commercial 00:30:43.819 --> 00:30:46.359 success, faithfully adapting the books across 00:30:46.359 --> 00:30:50.599 four ambitious seasons from 2018 to 2024. The 00:30:50.599 --> 00:30:52.759 fact that her work can support a major international 00:30:52.759 --> 00:30:56.059 HBO series shows that the strength of the narrative 00:30:56.059 --> 00:30:58.920 is so enormous, the author's face is literally 00:30:58.920 --> 00:31:01.299 unnecessary for massive financial and cultural 00:31:01.299 --> 00:31:03.819 success. It essentially proves her central claim. 00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:05.980 And the adaptation train just kept moving. Netflix 00:31:05.980 --> 00:31:08.339 recently got into the Ferrante business, releasing 00:31:08.339 --> 00:31:10.940 a drama series based on the lying life of adults 00:31:10.940 --> 00:31:14.640 in January 2023. These adaptations prove that 00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:17.259 the emotional power of her stories, combined 00:31:17.259 --> 00:31:20.319 with that sweeping historical backdrop, translate 00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:23.799 seamlessly to the format of prestige television. 00:31:24.250 --> 00:31:26.549 And all this success is supported by continued 00:31:26.549 --> 00:31:29.630 major literary honors, despite her insistence 00:31:29.630 --> 00:31:31.730 that the author is irrelevant. She was shortlisted 00:31:31.730 --> 00:31:35.170 for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize for 00:31:35.170 --> 00:31:37.710 The Story of the Lost Child. She was also the 00:31:37.710 --> 00:31:40.589 recipient of the 2016 Independent Publisher Book 00:31:40.589 --> 00:31:43.789 Award Gold Medal for Literary Fiction, again 00:31:43.789 --> 00:31:46.349 for The Story of the Lost Child. And it's important 00:31:46.349 --> 00:31:48.490 to note, this is also a testament to the quality 00:31:48.490 --> 00:31:51.450 of the translation, largely done by Anne Goldstein. 00:31:51.609 --> 00:31:54.089 Who translated many of her major works, allowing 00:31:54.089 --> 00:31:56.390 her Italian genius to reach a global English 00:31:56.390 --> 00:31:59.150 -speaking audience. It really is a complete literary 00:31:59.150 --> 00:32:02.650 legacy, critically celebrated, commercially dominant, 00:32:02.829 --> 00:32:05.509 and visually adapted, built entirely without 00:32:05.509 --> 00:32:08.589 a public face. A modern triumph of radical self 00:32:08.589 --> 00:32:10.890 -effacement in a world obsessed with celebrity. 00:32:11.210 --> 00:32:13.720 So we've covered a remarkable career. from the 00:32:13.720 --> 00:32:16.180 stark psychological realism of her early novels, 00:32:16.339 --> 00:32:18.920 detailing abandonment and domestic collapse. 00:32:19.529 --> 00:32:22.230 To the sprawling historical epic of the Neapolitan 00:32:22.230 --> 00:32:25.670 Quartet, which explored the full emotional and 00:32:25.670 --> 00:32:28.089 political scope of the 20th century. And what 00:32:28.089 --> 00:32:31.789 stands out is the singular achievement. Ferrante 00:32:31.789 --> 00:32:34.549 created a globally recognized body of work that 00:32:34.549 --> 00:32:37.450 truly defined contemporary literary fiction. 00:32:37.670 --> 00:32:40.289 A claim solidified by that New York Times number 00:32:40.289 --> 00:32:42.630 one ranking for the 21st century. And she did 00:32:42.630 --> 00:32:45.289 all this while remaining absolutely steadfast. 00:32:45.819 --> 00:32:47.940 in her philosophical belief that the author is 00:32:47.940 --> 00:32:50.039 irrelevant to the finished book. We reviewed 00:32:50.039 --> 00:32:53.059 the primary themes of her work complex, often 00:32:53.059 --> 00:32:55.700 toxic female relationships, the intensity of... 00:32:55.849 --> 00:32:58.470 domestic and existential despair. And how these 00:32:58.470 --> 00:33:00.829 personal struggles intersect with sweeping Italian 00:33:00.829 --> 00:33:03.910 political upheavals. The genius of Sorante is 00:33:03.910 --> 00:33:06.109 that she managed to write books that are both 00:33:06.109 --> 00:33:08.950 critically dense, demanding philological and 00:33:08.950 --> 00:33:12.049 linguistic analysis. And wildly popular, transcending 00:33:12.049 --> 00:33:14.470 the literary fiction bubble by speaking honestly 00:33:14.470 --> 00:33:17.390 about profound, often shameful experiences of 00:33:17.390 --> 00:33:20.049 womanhood, friendship, and ambition. But the 00:33:20.049 --> 00:33:22.190 elephant in the room remains the identity debate. 00:33:22.619 --> 00:33:25.420 For sure, the attempts to unmask her involved 00:33:25.420 --> 00:33:29.420 high -level, multidisciplinary methods. A literary 00:33:29.420 --> 00:33:31.799 scholar using peas and street maps and political 00:33:31.799 --> 00:33:34.900 knowledge. An investigative reporter using financial 00:33:34.900 --> 00:33:37.480 records and royalty payments. And a team of academics 00:33:37.480 --> 00:33:39.859 using machine learning models to analyze function 00:33:39.859 --> 00:33:43.180 words. We saw the intense ethical backlash against 00:33:43.180 --> 00:33:46.000 reporters who tried to violate her privacy, a 00:33:46.000 --> 00:33:48.680 backlash that often focused on the gendered nature 00:33:48.680 --> 00:33:51.359 of the attack. But the strongest literary critiques 00:33:51.359 --> 00:33:53.339 of her work, the ones that earned her that NYT 00:33:53.339 --> 00:33:56.099 ranking, consistently describe her writing as 00:33:56.099 --> 00:33:58.380 euphorically feminine. Rich with unvarnished 00:33:58.380 --> 00:34:01.079 female experience and psychological truth. This 00:34:01.079 --> 00:34:03.000 raises the final important question. for you, 00:34:03.059 --> 00:34:05.640 the listener, to mull over. We have multiple 00:34:05.640 --> 00:34:08.260 competing scientifically and financially supported 00:34:08.260 --> 00:34:10.900 theories on the author's identity. A Neapolitan 00:34:10.900 --> 00:34:14.039 professor, a female translator, or her male novelist 00:34:14.039 --> 00:34:17.019 husband, Domenico Starnone. So, given the strength 00:34:17.019 --> 00:34:19.239 of the literary analysis, praising the work's 00:34:19.239 --> 00:34:21.860 profound exploration of female secrets and inner 00:34:21.860 --> 00:34:25.420 lives, Does knowing the true profile of the writer, 00:34:25.500 --> 00:34:28.260 man or woman, academic or translator, change 00:34:28.260 --> 00:34:30.780 how we interpret the candor and depth she so 00:34:30.780 --> 00:34:33.559 convincingly captured in her fiction? It forces 00:34:33.559 --> 00:34:37.000 us to ask, is the power of the book truly independent 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:39.500 of the identity of the person who wrote it, just 00:34:39.500 --> 00:34:41.840 as she argued? Or does the fact that we try so 00:34:41.840 --> 00:34:44.400 hard to solve the mystery prove that we fundamentally 00:34:44.400 --> 00:34:47.039 require a biography to properly appreciate the 00:34:47.039 --> 00:34:49.190 genius of the work? that's a fascinating note 00:34:49.190 --> 00:34:51.090 to end on thank you for joining us on this deep 00:34:51.090 --> 00:34:53.190 dive into the elusive brilliance and intentional 00:34:53.190 --> 00:34:54.570 silence of Elena Ferrante