Introduction
This collection of essays attempts to counter the oftentimes problematic framing of author Elena Ferrante. The ongoing debate around her work seems to be primarily concerned with whether it is “lowbrow”, or else whether the claims about Ferrante’s global writer status are indeed justified. Our decision to “unframe” Ferrante, releasing the author from the tight confines of this debate, resonates with an increasing body of academic work that has consistently shown that in Ferrante’s writings, not only is there more “highbrow” than meets the eye, but there is also a deliberate juxtaposition of contrasting styles that has permitted Ferrante to write aesthetically sophisticated page-turners that reach many different audiences worldwide. Indeed, there is no doubt at this point that the global visibility of Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels in both mainstream media and in scholarly publications has firmly established the author as a powerful voice in contemporary World Literature. It is thus necessary to dismantle the plethora of hackneyed viewpoints and speculations built up in recent years around the wild success of this author. It is not surprising that Ferrante has so far been more appreciated—by readers and scholars alike—outside of Italy, despite the fact that she was famously nominated for the most prestigious Italian literary prize: the Premio Strega. In spite of, or probably because of, the international reputation that the writer has achieved through the sale of over sixteen million copies of her works, as well as translation rights sold to more than fifty countries and the adaptation of her tetralogy into an acclaimed HBO series1, establishment critics, particularly in Italy, have been quick to shun her writing. Their pre1 Now already in the filming stage of its final seasons which have, interestingly, contributed to a touristic boom in Ischia and the areas in Naples where the series was first filmed in 2018-19. The first series (2018-19) and the second (2020) seasons have been aired on Italian national television and on HBO. Ferrante’s 2019 La vita bugiarda degli adulti will also be adapted as a series on Netflix.
