Farewell to Naples: Ferrante’s Story of a New Name

In Ferrante’s Story of a New Name, the protagonist’s journey to self-knowledge and self-realization is mapped through a farewell trip to Naples before she begins her studies in Pisa. As the centerpiece and background around and against which Elena’s accomplishments, failures, and societal pressures revolve, Naples emerges as a mosaic of energy and lethargy, unbreakable traditions and negligible innovations. While these elements mirror the protagonist’s powerlessness in changing the “norms” to which she is expected to adhere, they also function as her spur to a steady shift toward self-understanding. In this article, I analyze the ways in which Ferrante’s use of the beauty and lure, corrosiveness and lethality of Naples parallel her discourse on the protagonist’s search for self-understanding, a process that will ultimately enable Elena, the protagonist, to find self-realization