“The myth of Naples” in the “Neapolitan novels” by Elena Ferrante

The article is devoted to the construction of the “Neapolitan” myth in the in the “Neapolitan Novels” (“My Brilliant Friend”, “L’amica geniale”, 2011), “The Story of a New Name” (“Storia del nuovo cognome”, 2012), “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay” (“Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta”, 2013) и “The Story of the Lost Child” (“Storia della bambina perduta”, 2014) by Elena Ferrante. Ferran-te’s Naples becomes a full-fledged hero of these novels, combining real historical space and mythopoetic space, which can be analyzed from the point of view of spaciopoetics (poetics of space) and urban poetics. According to the research by E. Farino and Yu. Pykhtina, the real geographical space of the city is inseparably linked with the imaginary space. In the space of the novels, a connection is found both with urban legends and with the myth of the creation of Naples (the myth of the siren Partenope). Ferrante’s Naples is correlated with the topos of a cursed place that drives local residents insane. The reverse demonic essence is found not only in people, but also in ordinary things. Ferrante creates a myth about the “wrong side” of Naples, visible only to the local residents themselves, comparing it with the main character of the tetralogy, Raffaella (Lila) Cerullo, endowed with the same ambivalent nature. The article explains the reasons for the abundance of female images associated with the “genealogy” of Naples and its hereditary curse. It is noteworthy that Ferrante rewrites the original myth of how the city was created turning it into a contaminated space, doomed to be destroyed advance.