Vigilância e autocontrole em Um Amor Incômodo, de Elena Ferrante

Abstract

This article deals with the first novel of the Italian writer known as Elena Ferrante. In the book L’amore molesto, published in 1992, Ferrante works with themes that will be developed more strongly in the Napolitan tetralogy. Among these themes is the main subject of the article: the submission of the woman to the suveillance of the man, and the necessity she has to exert the self control over her own body. In first place thus, this article takes into account the difference between the positions of Amalia and Delia, mother and daughter respectively, regarding the framing of the gender, and also the domestic violence and their need for surveillance of the family men. Following that, it investigates how such surveillance turns itself into self control, wich Delia embodies as a father inheritance. Lastly, it concludes with a speculation over how Delia’s self control enables her to narrate her own trauma, which takes her away from the father’s heritage, and allows her to regain the truth about gender violence and the woman condition.