$120
4 Sessions via Zoom
Out of stock
Once a month Mondays, 7:00 pm EDT - 8:30 pm EDT September 14 to December 7, 2020
Meeting Dates:
9/14, 10/12, 11/9, 12/7
This discussion group, led by NYU professor Rebecca Falkoff, will be dedicated to Elena Ferrante’s stunningly successful and viscerally riveting Neapolitan novels: My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child. We will ask what makes the novels so powerful and why they inspire such strong emotions in readers. Other topics covered, depending on the interest of participants, may include literary influences and allusions, labor and class politics, the author function, gender and sexuality, and the thematization of working with words (translation, writing, printing).
This discussion group is open to those who have already read some or all of the tetralogy and to those who are reading it for the first time.
- 9/14: My Brilliant Friend and “The Gift of the Befana” in La frantumaglia, 15-16. (A PDF scan of “The Gift of the Befana” will be distributed to participants.)
- 10/12: The Story of a New Name
- 11/9: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
- 12/7: The Story of the Lost Child and “What an Ugly Child She Is,” New Yorker, October 31, 2016.
This group will take place online via Zoom. Participants will receive instructions for access prior to the first session.
Led by
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Rebecca Falkoff
Rebecca Falkoff
Rebecca Falkoff is an Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at New York University, where she regularly teaches a seminar on Elena Ferrante. Her first book, Possessed: A Cultural History of Hoarding, will be published by Cornell University Press in April 2021.
About this series
Reading Groups
Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.