Elena Ferrante; trans. Ann Goldstein
In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein, is a collection of four essays originally presented as lectures in which Ferrante discusses her views on writing and the various authors who influenced her evolution as a writer. Ferrante describes how she desperately tried to write within the margins as a child. The act of writing in the margins becomes a metaphor for the tension in her own writing between adherence to constraints versus the desire to break free from those restraints.
Ferrante argues that a writer’s choice of genre can act as a restraint. She urges writers not to be limited by the constraints of a genre. Rather, she encourages them to disrupt it since it is through disruption that writing can become powerful and unique. She seeks to disrupt anticipated character development, saying of her characters, “I become passionate about them when they say one thing and do the opposite.” She insists writing should show life as it is in all its settled, unsettled, and conflicting glory.
Ferrante also explores male dominance in writing and how men frequently use language to circumscribe women and prevent them from speaking in their own voices. She describes her personal struggles to find her own voice from under the barrage of male writers she read earlier in her development. Her foray into gendered writing leads her to consider the challenges faced by women writers. She encourages women to write their own version of truth, to share and reflect on their stories with other women, and to become a cultural and political force in their own right.
The essays are not so much a how-to on writing good literature. They are more of an outline of what Ferrante learned about writing. She refers to some of her own novels and how she struggled with and formulated the characters. Insisting that all writing is built on one’s reading of great literature, Ferrante cites the words of several authors and credits them with influencing her approach to writing.
These essays offer insight into Ferrante’s craft and will appeal to fans of her novels.