The Limping Mother(land): Reading Immacolata in Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels as an Allegory for Constructions of Southern Italian 'Backwardness'

Abstract

This article examines how the limping mother, Immacolata, in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels functions as an allegory for widely held perceptions of Southern Italian ‘backwardness’. Drawing on close reading, feminist theory, Orientalism, and socio-political readings of Italy and its South, it argues that Immacolata’s maternal role reflects largely Anglophone constructions of Italy’s contemporary global identity. Immacolata’s domestic confinement as a mother in patriarchal Naples mirrors constructions of Italy’s South as feminine. Her limping body functions as a corporeal allegory for Orientalist narratives of Italy’s national weakness, and the constructed ‘crippling’ effect of the Mezzogiorno that contributes to Italy’s ‘backwards’ global identity. Lastly, Elena’s matrophobic rejection of Immacolata stages the contemporary phenomenon of internal Italian migration from South to North, and to countries outside Italy. That these parallels can be drawn from a text written by an Italian author suggests that Ferrante deliberately reveals the internalised shame of Southern Italian identity, demonstrating the permeation of these constructions of Southern Italian ‘backwardness’ into Southern Italians’ sense of self. This article demonstrates Immacolata’s effectiveness as an allegorical figure for widely held perceptions of Southern Italian identity, in itself revealing the problematics of these perceptions. By repositioning the marginalised maternal body as a site of comment in Italian studies, this article provides a critical view of global representations and perceptions of Italian identity. This suggests the need for greater critical engagement with Orientalist framings of Italian identity, particularly within Anglophone media, and calls for deeper examination of Italy’s associated stereotypes.