Abstract
Addressing the perplexity that readers have expressed in trying to make sense of the highly charged love/hate relationship lived between Elena and Lila, this chapter suggests that the otherwise inscrutable dimensions of the friendship become intelligible when understood as the inheritance of a “furious” love earlier experienced with the mother. Maksimowicz explores Elena and Lila’s relationship as an embodiment of the earlier primal one, a reiteration of the claiming and shaming love known with the mother. Drawing upon object relations psychoanalysis and psychosocial theory to illuminate these dynamics, she examines how Ferrante’s exploration of a furious primal love within the context of Elena and Lila’s friendship provides new understandings of maternal recognition failure and the debilitating form of shame it produces.
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Maksimowicz, C. (2016). Maternal Failure and Its Bequest: Toxic Attachment in the Neapolitan Novels. In: Russo Bullaro, G., Love, S. (eds) The Works of Elena Ferrante. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57580-7_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57580-7_9
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