Mind the Book - I giorni dell’abbandono di Elena Ferrante

Mind the Book is a series of events held at the Philosophy Library.
Each meeting is dedicated to the discussion of a book to bring attention to the library as a place of comparison, debate and sharing, and is aimed at anyone who wants to present and compare their opinions on the themes present in the work.

In this meeting of the "Mind the Book" series of events, Maria Ceresatto, a graduate in Philosophy at our university, presents "I giorni dell’abbandono" by Elena Ferrante. To participate in the event, reservations are required on Eventbrite. The event is open to everyone, until seats are filled.

"What a complicated frothy mix is ​​a couple"

Abstract

A woman who is still young, serene and satisfied, far from inactive in the safe circle of her family, is suddenly abandoned by her husband and falls into a dark and ancient whirlpool. Left with her two children and her dog, deeply marked by pain and humiliation, Olga, from the quiet Turin where she moved a few years ago, is sucked into the ghosts of her Neapolitan childhood, which take possession of the present and close her in an alienated and intermittent perception of herself. At this point begins a ruinous fall that takes your breath away, a story that captures and drags you to the blackest, most painful depths of the female experience.

The Author

Elena Ferrante is the pseudonym of an Italian writer, included in 2016 by the American weekly Time in the list of the 100 most influential people in the world, she is the author of Troubling Love, from which Mario Martone made the film of the same name. The following novel, I giorni dell’abbandono, was made into a film by Roberto Faenza. In the volume La frantumaglia she recounts her experience as a writer. In 2006, Edizioni E/O published the novel La figlia oscura, which was adapted into the film of the same name (2021) directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, starring Olivia Colman. In 2007, the children's story La spiaggia di notte was published, illustrated by Mara Cerri. In 2011, the first chapter of My Brilliant Friend was published, followed in 2012 by the second, The Story of a New Name, in 2013 by the third, The Story of Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and in 2014 by the fourth and final, The Story of the Lost Child, a finalist for the 2016 Man Booker International Prize.
In the fall of 2018, the first season of Saverio Costanzo's series based on the novel My Brilliant Friend was broadcast in Italy on Rai 1 and Timvision and in the United States on HBO, followed in 2019 by the second season based on The Story of a New Name.
In 2019, Edizioni E/O published L'invenzione occasionale, which collects the texts originally published in English in the Guardian in the translation by Ann Goldstein, and also in 2019 the novel The Lying Life of Adults was published.
In 2021, she was awarded the Belle van Zuylen Prize at the International Literature Festival Utrecht for her body of work and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence.

Articles, films and thought that deal with this and other volumes by the author:

• E. Alsop, Femmes Fatales: ‘La Fascinazione Di Morte’ in Elena Ferrante’s ‘L’amore Molesto’ and ‘I Giorni Dell’abbandono', Italica 91, 3 (2014), pp. 466-485;
• S. Porcelli, Olga’s Journey to Hell and Back: Echoes of Dante’s Commedia in Elena Ferrante’s 'I Giorni Dell’abbandono', Annali d’Italianistica, 39 (2021), pp. 309-336.
• Dal libro è stato tratto un film,I giorni dell'abbandono (2005), diretto da Roberto Faenza e disponibile sulle piattaforme Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Rakuten TV.
• Il regista ha poi scritto un breve volume riguardante il film (il volume si può trovare alla biblioteca Beato Pellegrino): R.Faenza et al., I giorni dell’abbandono, Marsilio, 2005.

• Un apprezzabile studio sulla scrittura di Ferrante:
  I. Pinto, Elena Ferrante: poetiche e politiche della soggettività, Mimesis 2020.
• Un molto più recente e discusso articolo del New York Times, nel quale Ferrante viene indicata come "scrittrice del secolo": https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/12/books/who-is-elena-ferrante.html
• Una recente pubblicazione edita PUP che fa il punto circa il "mistero" dell'identità dell'autrice (anche questo testo si può trovare in biblioteca Beato Pellegrino):
  A. Tuzzi, M.A. Cortelazzo, Drawing Elena Ferrante’s Profile: Workshop Proceedings, Padova 7 September 2017, Padova University Press, 2018.