Abstract
AbstractPart 1 of this essay began to develop a philosophical interpretation of The Neapolitan Novels by grounding a vision of the work's moral psychology in the tradition of Italian difference feminism, particularly as it is expressed in the texts of the influential Milan Women's Bookstore Collective. Part 2 advances the interpretive argument by presenting a more detailed literary analysis of the character of Lila Cerullo. After motivating the interest of various aspects of her symbolization by connecting them to important motifs in feminist philosophy and literature, I present evidence of Lila's special status in the work, and the puzzles this status raises. I advance a reading of Lila as a brilliant woman capable of playing the superior role in a hierarchical relationship of entrustment—and of The Neapolitan Novels as a sympathetic yet critical exploration of the viability of such relationships and their connection to female friendship and female freedom. In support of this reading, I give an account of Lila's strange condition of smarginatura (“dissolving margins/boundaries”), the import of her perplexing earthquake speech in which this condition is explicitly addressed, and Elena Greco's troubling reactions.
Highlights
Part 1 of this essay began to develop a philosophical interpretation of The Neapolitan Novels by grounding a vision of the work’s moral psychology in the tradition of Italian difference feminism, as it is expressed in the texts of the influential Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective
I advance a reading of Lila as a brilliant woman capable of playing the superior role in a hierarchical relationship of entrustment—and of The Neapolitan Novels as a sympathetic yet critical exploration of the viability of such relationships and their connection to female friendship and female freedom
Reading Amalia’s writing and appreciating her gifts of expression, Emilia is moved to tears: she too needs to express herself by telling someone about her life, but she isn’t able to “connect any of it up, and so she let herself go.”
Summary
One worry about the analysis initiated in Part 1 of this work is that it may overstate the parallels between the Elena–Lila relationship and the entrustment relationship as outlined by the Milan Women. When it comes to sex” both in the sense that she is uninterested in submitting to the expected sexual regime of penetrative intercourse, and in the sense that she is unwilling to submit to the expectations of her sex-based social roles The centrality of this passage supports the claim that Lila is systematically villainized by representatives of patriarchy, who are motivated by an overwhelming desire to possess her—and, failing that, to subordinate her, neutralizing her peculiarly threatening power.. Lila’s smarginatura is systematically related to other organizing symbols, making it hard to believe that dissolving margins is significant primarily as an isolated mental disorder Consider these motifs: disappearing; crossing boundaries; being reduced. It is consistent with her overall representation as a “good devil”—a prophet of liberation to sympathizers, a master of dark arts to opponents—and a foreseeable consequence of the burdens she faces as a “farsighted” “holy warrior.”
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