Tecituras da feminilidade e da maternidade: de Freud ao romance A Filha Perdida, de Elena Ferrante

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the work The Lost Daughter (2016) by the Italian writer Elena Ferrante, through psychoanalytic approach in line with a sociological focus as possible keys to interpretation, as all individual psychology is at the same time social. The core of this research focuses on the portrayals of femininity and motherhood that shape the experiences of the female characters in the novel, especially the protagonist, Leda. The analyzed plot contemplates the complexities of these women, demonstrating that the depicted constructions are permeated by ambivalences that allude to the conflicts inherent in the female and maternal positions, precisely because motherhood does not address all feminine concerns and desires. Therefore, ambivalence is a guiding thread in the novel, which is also present in the relationships between mothers and daughters of the characters, which is why we consider psychoanalysis a fruitful approach in this research. Lacanian contributions regarding the natural dissociation between the figure of the woman and the mother allow for an exploration of the ramifications of these subjective positions as effects of culture and language. The psychoanalytic perspective also enabled reflections on the ramifications of the primary relationship between a girl and her mother for the formation of female subjectivity, and thus we could analyze the relationship between the girl Elena and her mother Nina, and Leda's relationship with her own mother based on her recollections of her own childhood. The sociological approach we employed, in turn, allowed us to discuss the universal conception of the social imaginary regarding women as instinctively inclined to motherhood, which results in the romanticization and sanctification of the mother figure and the erasure of the woman. Moreover, it helps to situate the collective aspects intertwined with the intimate experiences of the characters, as Leda's intimate conflicts, both as a daughter and a mother, resonate in the relationships she establishes with other characters, especially with the Neapolitan triad on the beach, Nina, Elena, and the doll Nani. The relationships of dispersion and doubling that form between the characters and the conflicts between motherhood and femininity are inferred in the metaphors and metonymic processes that make up the narrative, indicating an intentional weaving between form and content. Therefore, this aspect was considered as the scope of our investigation. Additionally, we focused on the spiral form of the narrative through the stream of consciousness of the narrator- character, where her experiences are always elaborated retrospectively, reflecting her process of (de)constructing femininity through her (dis)encounters with the other characters in the novel.