those who leave and those who stay @grecocerullo - Tumblr Blog

Another central force of the narrative is similarly blurred: exile (cf. 5.1). This recurring theme is apparently constructed from a series of contrasts between Elena and Lila, between those who leave and those who stay: they occupy different spaces (Lila can live only in the rione/Elena has to distance herself from it), speak different idioms (dialect/Italian; cf. 5), and embody different symbols (attachment/displacement). Yet taken in its entirety, the narrative strategy rejects the false dichotomy of rootedness vs. exile, authentic napoletanità vs. emigration, regional identity vs. national identity. Because those who leave are those who stay, and vice versa. Those who leave, like Elena, return to live in the neighborhood—in Elena’s case, for thirteen years—though not without atoning for having abandoned their origins. Those who stay in Naples, like Lila, live in exile from the city, uprooted by smarginatura. In turn, with the disappearance of Lila, the city itself is exiled: Naples and its geography are no longer a key element of the novel (the endless research into Naples that Lila had undertaken during the last twenty years of her life disappears along with her).

Elena Ferrante's Key Words, Tiziana de Rogatis

#analyses opinions discussions etc.#elena greco #lila cerullo

themonstrousother

Disappearing is an extreme, two-pronged response by women to the sense of loss they experience because of male violence. The plunder and expropriation of oneself is a vacuum that generates another vacuum. Erasing oneself becomes “an aesthetic project” (slc 455), undertaken by Lila as it is by the protagonists of Ferrante’s other novels. On the one hand, these feminine figures seem to have definitively succumbed to male violence, yet by making an abrupt exit they challenge the traditional structures of that violence, particularly the family structure. As Ferrante points out, “The disappearance of women should be interpreted not only as giving up the fight against the violence of the world but also as clear rejection. [ . . . ] ‘Io non ci sto’ [is literally a form that] means: I’m not here, in this place, before what you’re suggesting” (fr 327). This form of “removing oneself from the picture,” of “refusing to engage” (fr 339) in the sometimes explicit, sometimes underhanded game of violence can be deemed an “aesthetic project” because it allows women to reshape their lives and the lives of others.”

Elena Ferrante's Key Words, Tiziana de Rogatis

#analyses opinions discussions etc.#lila cerullo

sheafalcon

L'amica Geniale | 2.04

#screencaps #lila cerullo #elena greco #s2 #2x04

themonstrousother

[….]the uncanny charge of smarginatura also acts as the main storytelling technique, dissolving the story by withholding from readers important parts of the plot and never clearing the air of mystery and suspense. Indeed, six decades of lives and stories revolve around five inexplicable disappearances that translate to ellipses in the narrative and black holes in the plot. The dolls disappear for almost the entire story, and readers will know nothing about their theft, or the joint liability for their theft, over the course of six decades. The dolls do not resurface until the end of the quartet, thereby closing and dissolving the circle (cf. Chapter 1). Then there are the eight notebooks Lila gives to Elena in the spring of 1966, which disappear when, several months later, Elena throws them in the Arno in a fit of jealousy—a “clearly metaphorical murder” (Turchetta 109). The reader never has access to the notebooks that can confirm Lila is the superior artist. Tina disappears and, after that, Lila’s phantom book about Naples, a book that, for the obsessed Elena, would have reembodied the girl and the narrative brilliance of her friend. Finally, Lila vanishes, mirroring the uncanny fates of her daughter and the dolls, and leaving the reader with no idea of the cause nor positive closure.

Elena Ferrante's Key Words, Tiziana de Rogatis

#analyses opinions discussions etc.

misundertoods

they don't think i'm a person, but a thing (my brilliant friend) // in the end, all girls are like the rose bride (revolutionary girl utena)

lila cerullo as rose bride.

#!!!!!!#fanart #lila cerullo

deerest-deer

If you could ask a question to one of your characters, whom would you ask?

Probably Lila. She was a character with whom I remained in contact for years: years of auditions before being chosen, then a year of shooting. In some way they were three or four years of my life. It was a silent work, which I defended a lot. We were almost a secret couple, she and I: I did not tell anyone that I was preparing the auditions. Perhaps for this reason I internalized her so much. Actually, when I think of these women I portray, an almost tribal image comes to mind: as if I felt a circle of female figures around me. Sometimes I am afraid to move forward alone in this circle, but there is no need to say anything in reality: knowing that they are there, even just behind me, is enough. Because I like to think that they are behind, and that now I must look ahead. In some way they have made me a woman.

#cast #irene maiorino

nevver

Chindōgu, Jake Kennedy

#associations

miamaimania

“Versus” (2007) by Kyungwoo Chun ☀ Blurred pairs in dynamic confrontation

#associations

elena-lila

I think one of Ferrante’s big theses in the Neapolitan Novels is:

1. that feminism and advancing the status of women is not a given under socialism and/or communism, and that it needs to be intentionally and thoughtfully integrated into that sociopolitical & economic philosophy (in practice, into the legal and policy environment). Lila is in a lot of anti-fascism & pro-communism spaces where gender issues are treated as secondary, tertiary, some nth order problem.

2. that class awareness is not a given in feminism and requires similar integration into that philosophy. Elena ends up in a lot of feminist circles that ignore the plight of poor women like Lila. That’s why it gets this reputation of being something not accessible to poor (or otherwise marginalized) women.

3. that without proper & intentional care for both these issues, liberation is completely unattainable.

#txt #analyses opinions discussions etc.#well said