Authenticity, authorship, and autofiction : an autofictional reading of Elena Ferrante

The autotheoretical practice of "life-thinking" provides rich spaces for considering when, how, and if the personal can be theoretical. Autofiction, however, complicates these questions even further. Italian novelist Elena Ferrante, who publishes under a pseudonym, calls into question nearly every facet of authorship, as she reveals that her characters are based upon her own life. Despite this admission, Ferrante, as we know, isn't real. My research will first position Ferrante in an autofictional context using theories of autofiction and autotheory before examining her alongside autofiction writer, Rachel Cusk. I'll examine Cusk's novels in contrast to Ferrante's, as Cusk often denies us access to the narrator, even though Cusk herself is a public figure we have access to. I'll then bring in Annie Ernaux, who, despite her rejection of autofiction, writes startlingly intimate autofiction that resembles the intimacy of Ferrante's writing. Ernaux, however, is a public author figure, which I'll consider at length. In combination with Eve Sedgwick's idea of "reparative reading" I plan to consider how Ferrante can be read, in keeping with her wishes as an author and the reader's need to see the line between reality and fiction. Considering histories of women's authorship, I'll examine Ferrante alongside Cusk and Ernaux and determine what can be done with a woman author that we don't get to know, who must be read as closely as any of her characters.