Deconstruction of Sexism: A Feministic Study of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels

Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels are an account of female friendship of Elena Greco and her most devoted companion, Lila Cerullo. Novels are set in various cities of Italy, especially Naples, where brutality pervades each corner of the social sphere; through the friendship of these youngsters, the political and social history of Italy are completely introduced. In reality, Ferrante builds up the elements of women’s liberation by setting her main female character inside the late-twentieth-century Naples, where generally man-centric structures decide to limit the imaginative, self-centered, and determined woman. Based on the signification of feminism thoughts and gender inequality in the literary canon of ۲۰th century, this study utilizes various speculations of feminism, particularly French feminism, which are grounded based on the theories of Helen Cixous, Julia Kristeva and Lucy Irigaray to shed light on how Ferrante explores new types of female-centered experiences that undermine patriarchal structures by “écriture féminine ‘’.

Keywords:

Ferrante , Patriarchal society , Feminism , the Neapolitan novels , Feminine identity