A Fascinating Trip Through Literature in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels (original) (raw)
A FASCINATING TRIP THROUGH LITERATURE IN ELENA FERRANTE’S NEAPOLITAN NOVELS
Conference Paper July 2018
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Maria Sgouridou
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
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Athanasios Natsis
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EUROPEAN CENTER FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
ICSS XV 2018
15th International Conference on Social Sciences
13-14 July 2018
Leuven
Conference Proceedings
Volume II
EUROPEAN CENTER FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
Published 2018
15th International Conference on Social Sciences
13-14 July 2018
Leuven
Volume II
ISBN 9788890970030
Published by
EUSER, European Center for Science Education and Research
Publishing steps of the Proceedings and Organization of ICSS XV
The first meeting has been held on 6 March 2018 concerning the announcement of the 15th 15^{\text {th }} edition of the ICSS series by the executive members of the committee. The first call for participation for submission of abstracts and full papers in social sciences, educational studies, economics, language studies and interdisciplinary studies, was announced to the registered subscribers of ICSS email database as well as through conference alerts services on 12 April 2018. The submitted abstracts and papers have been reviewed in terms of eligibility of the titles as well as their contents and the authors whose works were accepted were called to submit their final version of the papers until 23 June 2018. The peer reviewers who are also the registered authors of ICSS XV did a voluntary work, exchanged review notes with the authors.
The final papers were accepted until 6 July 2018. What follows is the result of these academic efforts.
Typeset by EUSER
Printed in Leuven
Copyright © 2018 EUSER
© All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher or author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.
Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the material in this book is true, correct, complete, and appropriate at the time of writing. Nevertheless, the publishers, the editors and the authors do not accept responsibility for any omission or error, or for any injury, damage, loss, or financial consequences arising from the use of the book. The views expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect those of the European Center for Science Education and Research.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE INTEGRATION OF CLASSIC CARS AS AN ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENT IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENTS AND THE POSSIBLE INFLUENCE OF BEHAVIORAL FINANCE … 17
SEBASTIAN HOFFMANN … 17
CRITICAL FACTORS IN ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA - A CASE STUDY … 26
KATHY O’SULLIVAN … 26
SEPARATION OF POWERS IN THE KUWAITI CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: A CASE STUDY … 37
ABDULRAHMAN F S H ALHAJRI … 37
THE IMPACT OF ACCOUNTING REFORMS IN FINANCIAL REPORTING- CASE OF ALBANIA … 57
PhD. Mirela UJKANI MITI … 57
Prof. PhD. Sotiraq DHAMO … 57
A FASCINATING TRIP THROUGH LITERATURE IN ELENA FERRANTE’S NEAPOLITAN NOVELS … 72
MARIA SGOURIDOU … 72
ATHANASIOS NATSIS … 72
CLASSROOM OBSERVATION FOR THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF MYANMAR UNIVERSITY LECTURERS IN A SINGAPORE CROSS-CULTURAL CONTEXT: PERCEPTION OF ABILITIES AND LEARNING BASED ON ‘NINE EVENTS OF INSTRUCTION’ … 76
SIEW HONG LAM … 76
RUNNING HEAD: WHEN PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL DISTANCES PRODUCE AN ANALOGICAL PERCEPTUAL BIAS IN THE EBBINGHAUS ILLUSION … 85
KÉVIN MoiniER … 85
JULIETTE GASQUET … 85
VINCENT MURDAY … 85
LIONEL BRUNEL … 85
A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF THE SEPARATION OF POWERS IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM OF KUWAIT … 92
ABDULRAHMAN F S H ALHAJRI … 92
AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN E-BUSINESS SUPPLY CHAIN … 109
DR M. RAMASUBRAMANIAM … 109
DR N. CHANDRASEKARAN … 109
A Fascinating Trip Through Literature in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels
Maria Sgouridou
Professor, Department of Italian Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Athanasios Natsis
Scientific Collaborator, Department of Russian Language and Literature and Slavic Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Abstract
In Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, more than a multidimensional frame of the contemporary Italian reality, a panoramic view of European and American literature is present. Such a view reflects the author’s serious engagement and reveals, in part, her literary models. In the present paper, emphasis is put on the author’s testimonies, both direct and internal, about the origin of her resources: Virgil, Leon Tolstoy and Louisa May Alcott are the ones treated here.
Keywords: comparative literature, apprenticeship novel, classics, Russian realism, American literature, Ferrante fever
Introduction
Being recognized as one of the most important contemporary Italian writers, Elena Ferrante has always defended her right to anonymity and argued that keeping it would be of fundamental importance for the creative process (Domonoske, 2016). Experts have repeatedly tried to dig out her true identity: could she be Marcella Marmo, a Neapolitan Professor, as Marco Santagata claims (Donadio, 2016), or the translator Anita Raja, in Marco Gatti’s opinion (Gatti, 2016), or even a man, Domenico Starnone, Raja’s husband, according to what a group of linguists (Savoy, 2017) at the University of Padua has recently asserted?
Ferrante herself claims that a book, since it is written, has no more need of its author. However, if we accept that to fully appreciate a literary text it is necessary to know its author’s perspective, as it inevitably affects the characters he creates, in Ferrante’s case the safest source available so that we can reconstruct her background is the material offered by her own texts. In Neapolitan Novels, in fact, literature acts as a keystone for the evolution of the plot, as the author reveals a kaleidoscope of European literature, precisely her literary arsenal, which illuminates us about her reality.
Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels is an epic circle that narrates the story of two little girls from their childhood to old age. It undoubtedly offers a precise description of the social and economic transformation of their world, their city and finally of all Italy during the significant decades from 1950 to 2011. Step by step, we observe not only the development of their relationship, but the way their modest neighbourhood and the entire peninsula changes as well. Through the narration of their lives, readers become able to approach and discover the political history of modern Italy from the end of the Second World War till nowadays. However, within this rich and multidimensional frame, another equally important factor is gradually emerging: a panoramic, through continuous references, view of European and American literature, which reflects the author’s serious engagement and contributes to the so-called “Ferrante fever” phenomenon (Marangoni, 2017).
Elena and Lila, both born in August of 1944, are the best students in their elementary school. Lila, daughter of a shoe maker, is really brilliant, the most intelligent of the two, and Elena, daughter of a concierge, inevitably follows her. After all, the girls do not consider only the lessons at school; they also like reading romances of both Italian and international literature: Grazia Deledda, Luigi Pirandello, Alessandro Manzoni, Folgore da San Cimignano, Edoardo de Filippo, Louisa May Alcott, Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol, Leon Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky are some of their favourite authors mentioned in the first three books of the 4 -part series. All the above-mentioned foreign writers had already been translated in Italy (Mazzucchelli, 2007) and anyone, even people from the underdeveloped southern region of the country, could have access
to their work. Therefore, the two little girls will read Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, one of the world’s most beloved novels. This book became a landmark of their childhood: they were impressed by the fact that the writer became wealthy by receiving publication rights and saved her family from poverty. Consequently, Elena and Lila decided to produce a book. Lila, always inpatient and decisive, was the first to write a novel entitled the Blue Fairy at the age of 10.
“…However, Lila, whose parents did not allow her to continue the education she thrived on, was confined to the neighbourhood and her responsibilities to work and support her family. Elena, conversely, was allowed to continue her schooling with her parents’ assistance, becoming a star pupil in Lila’s absence. It was her education that gave her an opportunity to leave the neighbourhood, a privilege neither her parents nor Lila were afforded…” (Vazquez, 2017)
In fact, Elena became a professional writer. In contrast, Lila, although extremely gifted as a child, abandoned school after having completed only her elementary studies, since her father denied paying for private lessons in Latin, a necessary subject for her admission at higher education level. On the contrary, Elena continued her studies and she graduated from university. Yet Lila, faster than Elena, studying a borrowed book of Latin grammar, approaches Virgil’s Aeneid and for the first time in her life Elena will listen from her lips about Dido. This means that there are a significant number of references of that book in a substantial part of the tetralogy. Dido, personification of the betrayed woman, is often used by Ferrante for another reason: both her heroines will face the same fate with Virgil’s female protagonist. First, Lila will be abandoned by her lover Nino Sarratore, since her romance, after 23 days of life in common, will end unexpectedly, then Elena will be trapped by the same man after a few years. She will get divorced from her husband in order to be with Nino; however, he will abandon her, just like Aeneas abandoned Dido. It should be mentioned, however, that Aeneas is
“…a warrior who will lead his people to safety, found a new Trojan state, and establish order in his and his countryman’s lives. Aeneas is the embodiment of Roman virtues: He is the dutiful servant of fate and of the gods, he is an exemplary leader of his people, and he is a devoted father and son. He demonstrates appropriate pietas - devotion to one’s family, country, and mission. Aeneas’s character possesses human qualities as well […] Aeneas is “a man apart, devoted to his mission, a dedicated man.” He tells Dido that he is “duty-bound.” […] Aeneas is determined to fulfil his mission despite obstacles that might hinder his progress” (McDougall & Pavlos, 2001).
Within such a frame, Dido, as a woman, represents an obstacle and must be eliminated. Just like Dido, Elena and Lila are also victims in a man’s world even if this man is a father, a husband or a lover. The abandoned queen touches both girls, especially Elena who will choose the fourth book of the Aeneid as the main argument for her thesis. Notably, in Book IV, Aeneas is torn between his love for Dido and his need to fulfil his mission. However, none of the two heroines of the tetralogy commits suicide as Dido did. When Nino disappears the two women try desperately to survive each in her own way: Lila initiates a new relationship with Enzo and establishes a successful computing company. Elena becomes a wellknown writer and continues living in Naples with her three daughters. The model of the abandoned woman, expressed by Dido, is radically transformed in accordance to the 20th-century necessities. In fact, during the decades of the seventies and eighties, women do not want to be victims anymore, even if a lover is still able to break their hearts. Their behaviour reclaims also another example from the campus of literature: Anna Karenina, Tolstoy’s tragic heroine, predator and prey at the same time, left her family escaping from a boring marriage to seek happiness in the arms of Sergeant Alexei Vronsky, who abandoned her after the birth of their daughter.
Just like Anna, the much talked-about heroine of Leo Tolstoy, Lila abandons her home and a marriage that offers her confidence and prosperity but not happiness. Elena, much more successful based on the social standards and her humble origins, follows her own charming Vronsky -even more frivolous and hypocritical is Nino - leaving behind a peaceful man, a remarkable University Professor, and two daughters. She has been living with him for several years, like Anna Karenina, and she gives birth to a girl, just like the Tolstoy’s heroine. Anna Karenina, the feminine ideal of the top representative of Russian realism, is reflected in the third book of the tetralogy, Those who leave and those who stay: "… In my thoughts, I travelled from the first and second biblical creation narrations up to Defoe’s Moll Flanders, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina… ". But beyond that particular reference to a literary text, there is a Ferrante’s interview, in which case she stated that she “…preferred to imitate Defoe, Fielding, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy…” (Levasseur, 2015). And since the author’s interviews are always written, we have an internal testimony (Wellek & Warren, 1970) of the sources she uses.
Based on the above, it is assumed that Ferrante belongs to the category of the so-called “multi-collective” writers. Although she demonstrates, in terms of readings and sources she taps into, an evident trend towards the literature of modern realism, focusing on the lead Russian masters, Chekhov, Gogol, Goncharov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, she does not reject French masters, Flaubert, nor the classical sources, such as Virgil’s Aeneid, which, along with the heroic tale about the creation of the Roman Empire, highlights the female world with much sensitivity. According to her own references and
statements, the author also takes into consideration the apprenticeship novel: her favourite readings include Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders and The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding.
Inevitably, such quests will direct her to the paths of American literature, to the well-known version of Dickens’s realism, to the multifaceted worlds of Louisa May Alcott. Alcott combines the apprenticeship novel - and the journey towards maturity - with the inevitable lightening of the female psyche, aiming to capture the evolution of her heroines in relation to their environment. Alcott’s targeting, therefore, seems to coincide with that of Ferrante. The Little Women, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, represented the vision of every woman in the 1970s, when the feminist movement spread: they make up a fearless creature with a high intelligence quotient, with virtues and aspirations, that perceives its fragile nature and yet does not accept its fate without fighting. She reacts: she travels, falls in love, creates dramas. She is that kind of woman, she is the way every woman would like to be, an artist of life. Isn’t it that Lila and Elena do the same thing? They complement each other, they survive, win, lose, build, demolish, move, decide, act, love and hate, and they mutually alternate in angel and demon roles, tied for more than half a century to a friendship that began as a game with two dolls, Tina and Nu.
Since 1868, the Little Women have endeared fascinatingly in Western societies by portraying the model of a woman who achieves everything passionately, talks about the end of innocence, the prolongation of adolescence, the dreams flattened out by the reality of life. Ferrante herself presents her ideal on the last page of the fourth book of the tetralogy: “… with that money we didn’t buy dolls … but the Little Women, the romance that goaled Lila to write the Blue Fairy and me to become what I am today, author of many books and mainly of a successful novel entitled A friendship” (The Story of the lost child). Thus, she completes a circle, after having referred to Alcott in the first book of the 4-part series. She explicitly admits the influence she received through her friend’s novel in order to begin her writing career and to produce a novel talking about both of them and their unique friendship. However, the reader has the impression that something important is missing: the completion of the story by Lila. Actually, we never get to know whether Lila had ever authored anything in secret. In that sense, the book remains unfinished, its end is open. On another note, we should bear in mind that Ferrante’s basic literary model, the Little Women, is an open-ended book.
In conclusion, as evidenced in Neapolitan novels, the author has a broad literary education that includes not only classical sources but also some of the greatest works of modern and contemporary European and American literature. Ferrante is not merely a reader of literature but a keen observer of it, being able to distinguish the style and the literary movement to which each writing belongs. She appreciates both pillars of literature as she seems to love prose, historical and apprenticeship novel, without excluding poetry in its epic form and she combines personal writing with romantic and realistic elements. Literature is for her a precious source, a firm reference point, a continuous stimulus of inspiration, a real tool.
References
[1] Alcott, L. M. (2012). Little Women. Penguin Classics.
[2] Domonoske, C. (2016). For Literary World, Unmasking Elena Ferrante Is Not A Scoop. It’s A Disgrace. In The week’s best stories from NPR books (3/10/2016). Accessible through: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwoway/2016/10/03/496406869/for-literary-world-unmasking-elena-ferrantes-not-a-scoop-its-a-disgrace(12/6/2018).
[3] Donadio, R. (2016). Who Is Elena Ferrante? An Educated Guess Causes a Stir. In The New York Times (13/3/2016). Accessible through:
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/14/books/who-is-elena-ferrante-an-educated-guess-causes-a-stir.html?\_r=0 (12/6/2018)(12 / 6 / 2018).
[5] Ferrante, E. (2012). My Brilliant Friend. New York: Europa editions.
[6] Ferrante, E. (2013). The Story of a New Name. New York: Europa editions.
[7] Ferrante, E. (2014). Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay. New York: Europa editions.
[8] Ferrante, E. (2015). The Story of the Lost Child. New York: Europa editions.
[9] Gatti, C. (2016). Elena Ferrante. An answer? In The New York Review of Books (10/10/2016). Accessible through: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/10/02/elena-ferrante-an-answer/ (12/6/2018).
[10] Levasseur, J. (2015). Exclusive Elena Ferrante interview: The full transcript. In The Sydney Morning Herald (22/12/2015). Accessible through :
[11] https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/exclusive-elena-ferrante-interview-the-full-transcript-20151222glt1op.html (10/6/2018).
[12] Marangoni, E. (2017). Farsi una ragione della Ferrante Fever. In Studio. Attualità Cultura Stili di Vita (29/9/2017). Accessible through:
[13] http://www.rivistastudio.com/standard/ferrante-fever-documentario/ (10/6/2018).
[14] Mazzucchelli, S. (2007). Le traduzioni dal russo nelle recensioni de “L’Italia che scrive” (1919-1939). In La Fabbrica del libro. Bollettino di storia dell’editoria in Italia (XIII, 2017, 2, pp. 25-31). Accessible through:
[15] http://www.fondazionemondadori.it/cms/file\_download/602/mazzucchelli25-31.pdf (10/6/2018).
[16] McDougall, R. & Pavlos, S. (2001). CliffsNotes on Virgil’s Aeneid. New York: Wiley Pub.
[17] Savoy, J. (2017). Elena Ferrante Unmasked. Accessible through:
[18] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320131096\_Elena\_Ferrante\_Unmasked (10/6/2018).
[19] Tolstoy, L. (2004). Anna Karenina. Penguin Classics.
[20] Vazquez, J. (2017). Fictionalized Italian Gender Relations Through Ferrante and Ammaniti. A thesis submitted to the Department of Romance Studies, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Accessible through:
[21] https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/handle/10161/14233
[22] Virgil (2008). The Aeneid. Penguin Classics.
[23] Wellek, R. & Warren A. (1970). Theory of literature. Penguin Books.
Classroom Observation for the Professional Development of Myanmar University Lecturers in a Singapore Cross-Cultural Context: Perception of Abilities and Learning Based on ‘Nine Events of Instruction’
Siew Hong Lam
Department of Biological Sciences,
Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore.
Abstract
Continuing professional development is important for improving and reforming teaching.Classroom observation of others’ teaching has been used for the professional development of eight lecturers from three Myanmar universities who visited the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore over a period of three weeks. To bridge the socio-cultural and educational background differences, Gagné’s ‘Nine events of instruction’ was used as a pedagogical framework to guide and evaluate the classroom observation and learning as it is well-established for instructional design and resonate well with educators. This study aimed to evaluate the participants’ abilities and their learning through classroom observation based on their perceptions of the ‘nine events of instruction’. The study found that most of the participants have positive views of their abilities in relation to the ‘nine events’, especially in practicing the early events of instruction. The classroom observation has benefitted them with respect to the ‘nine events’, particularly ‘Informing the Students of the Objective/Outcome’, ‘Stimulating Recall of the Prior Knowledge’ and ‘Presenting Information/Content/Stimulus’. Notably, ‘Assessing Performance’ was the most perceived ‘event of instruction’ that the participants wanted to improve on and that the participants perceived will benefit Myanmar lecturers the most. Qualitative feedbacks by the participants revealed lessons learned, their potential applicability and desires to reform and share. The study further demonstrated that the ‘nine events of instruction’ is a useful pedagogical framework for guiding and evaluating perception of abilities and learning in classroom instruction and observation for continuing professional development in a cross-cultural context.
Keywords: Continuing Professional Development, Classroom Observation, Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction, CrossCultural Context.
Introduction
Continuing professional development is critical to reforming teaching and learning in education (Borko, 2004).Educators who experienced effective professional development will increase in knowledge and skills, and in turn may change their attitudes and pedagogical approaches in teaching that will enhance students’ learning (Desimone, 2009).Kennedy (2005) proposed up to nine models of continuing professional development for educators, and by increasing the capacity of professional autonomy of teachers to innovate, these models transit from playing transmission to transformative roles. Observing others’ teaching can develop from a transmission model to a transformative model if ideas transmitted to the observer can further inspire and empower the observer to experiment and perform action research in the classroom. The observed classroom teaching offers an immersive and reflective environment for the observer to learn and develop ideas that could innovate his/her own teaching approach (Putnam & Borko, 2000; Wragg, 2002). It encourages self-reflection and experimentation with instructional design and delivery, and may even reduce the sense of isolation that might be felt by faculty with regard to teaching (Ammons & Lane, 2012). Therefore, classroom observation of peers’ teaching has been used as a tool for continuing professional development and shown to improve teaching and learning in higher education (Ali, 2012; Sullivan, Buckle, Nicky & Atkinson, 2012; Hammersley-Fletcher & Orsmond 2004).
Classroom observation
Classroom observation has served various interests from pedagogical research, curriculum development, course evaluation, and peer-review for appraisal of teaching to professional development of educators (Wragg, 2002). Irrespective