Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend: In Search of Parthenope and the “Founding” of a New City

Abstract

The main focus of this chapter is a recurring theme in the first three books of My Brilliant Friend, which concerns the art of writing. In this Neapolitan epic, therefore, the question of writing about the city of Naples is the problem that Ferrante implicitly and explicitly addresses. And it is Lila who suggests that it is time to go against the things of before and “found” a new city. She is the new Parthenope who has disappeared, and her absence brings into focus her conviction that only love can make people and cities thrive. Therefore, the aim is to characterize this “love,” place it in relation to writing about the city of Naples, and evaluate the effect and responsibility that this entails.