Elena Ferrante released her first novel in 1992, yet the only thing we confidently know about her is that she’s a woman from Naples, Italy. While there have been many anonymous authors throughout history, it’s rare in the modern literary world. And among the few who choose to write anonymously in the twenty-first century, few have reached the acclaim Ferrante has. After all, her works are full of beautiful prose and focus on themes of family, womanhood, and poverty, and this combination has created a global audience. But even after making the Time’s Hundred Most Influential People list and winning a Booker, she’s maintained her anonymity. Considering the level of fame she’s reached, it leaves only one question when it comes to her decision to conceal her identity: Why?
While Ferrante has acknowledged (through email) that being anonymous gives her the opportunity to touch upon any idea she wants and allows her to add autobiographical elements to her work, she also admits this isn’t the main reason she remains anonymous. Rather it’s because she thinks she shouldn’t be known.
In a world where literary works are seen like children of those who have written them, this belief seems odd, but her reasoning is logical. She believes that once a piece of literature is put into the world, it doesn’t require the author anymore. Instead, the audience should decide what they want to take from it. She doesn’t want people looking to her for a “correct” interpretation of her work. Or people using her life to come to conclusions about it. The easiest way to ensure that doesn’t happen? Remaining anonymous.
Of course, all literature has some type of intention behind it, but her method doesn’t deny that. On the contrary, we can assume through what she says that Ferrante’s work leans towards certain opinions on the topics she writes about, but these remain assumptions. In this way, we are still given the opportunity to come to whatever conclusions we want. With the ability to read her work in any way we want, we connect intimately to the characters and plot.
But most importantly it’s this anonymity which will keep her relevant for decades to come. As the world changes, people will form new conclusions about what she writes relevant to the society they live in. This means that fifty years from now, someone could read her works and make conclusions about them in a way completely different from what we think of her work in 2024, simply because they live in a different time than us. Yet there would still be no way to say their ideas are wrong.
This is a process we’ve already seen with her work, with new readers finding sapphic themes in her Neapolitan Quartet when a few years ago people only saw it as an ode to female friendship. Regardless if people see the dynamic of the protagonists as romantic or platonic, they’re both right. And it isn’t just a coincidence that more people are finding queer themes in her work as we see more diverse representations of sexuality in the world around us. Society’s opinions of love have changed and so have opinions of her work. In this way, her anonymity gives her work a living quality, as it evolves in the same way her audience does. And as a result, her work becomes timeless.
Of course, It wouldn’t be false to say that just learning she is anonymous adds appeal to her work. Here is a woman we know nothing about, writing about themes we can see all around us. Mystery is intriguing, so this itself draws us in.
Regardless, her decision to be anonymous is what really allows her work to transcend off the page and stick with the reader. There are endless possibilities to see ourselves and our ideas in her work, and her anonymity solidifies this.
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