49 pages • 1 hour read
Elena FerranteThe Lost Daughter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Elena Ferrante and the Neapolitan Quartet
Although Elena Ferrante is one of the biggest names in world literature, very little is known about the enigmatic author. Writing under a pseudonym, her true identity is a mystery. She communicates through letters and has never appeared publicly for interviews or awards. In written interviews, Ferrante claims to be from Naples, and many critics have further speculated on her identity. She is the author of eight novels, three books of essays, and one children’s book. All of her work has been translated into English by translator Ann Goldstein. Ferrante is best known for the Neapolitan Quartet, a sweeping series of four novels that follows the friendship of two girls from childhood to old age. The series includes My Brilliant Friend (2012), The Story of a New Name (2013), Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2014), and The Story of the Lost Child (2015). There are many similarities between the Neapolitan novels and The Lost Daughter, including themes of maternal ambivalence, female identity and friendship, and class and education. Leda is very similar to the Neapolitan Quartet’s Elena. Both are women who escape the poverty of Naples through education, becoming academics and mothers. There are also instances of repeated names, and dolls are an important symbol in both works.
Cultural Context: Motherhood in Modern Italy
Deeply rooted in Catholicism, Italy has always adhered to traditional family values. Women were historically relegated to the home, where they were expected to cook, maintain the house, and care for the children. The dramatic, loving, yet overbearing stereotype of the Italian mother is widely recognized in Italy and abroad. Despite feminist movements and the relaxing of strict gender roles in some cases, “maternal ambivalence is one of the ultimate taboos” in Italian culture (Tarnopolsky, M. “The Dark Heart of Motherhood in Italy: Maternal Ambivalence in Contemporary Italian Film.” Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, 2017).
Leda represents the first generation of Italian women to strive for something more than motherhood and have the opportunity to find it. Leda refers to how gendered expectations have stifled women for generations, discussing “the chain of mute or angry women” in her family (71). These women were forced into lives as mothers with little to no opportunity for work or education. Leda identifies herself as “part of a wave of new women” with priorities other than motherhood (108). However, the hostility Leda faces as she tries to raise her daughters and pursue a career illustrates the continued prevalence of conservative ideas surrounding motherhood and female identity. Even though Leda was able to have a career and her daughters now have opportunities other than motherhood, women like Nina are still unable to escape, trapped by a lack of education, limited opportunities, and abusive partners.
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