Name: FRANCYNE DOS SANTOS GONÇALVES
Publication date: 04/08/2025
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ANDRESSA ZOI NATHANAILIDIS | Examinador Interno |
| MARIA MIRTIS CASER | Presidente |
| RENATA ROCHA RIBEIRO | Examinador Externo |
Summary: This master's research proposes a critical analysis of the heroine's journey in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, composed of the novels My Brilliant Friend (2015), The Story of a New Name (2016), Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2016), and The
Story of the Lost Child (2017). The focus falls on the character and narrator Elena Greco (Lenu), in dialogue with the concept of the heroine’s journey as described by Maureen Murdock (2022 [1990]) in The Heroine’s Journey: Woman’s Quest for
Wholeness. The research examines the mother-daughter interaction in Ferrante’s works, highlighting its importance in the psychological development of the female subject, as outlined by Murdock (2022 [1990]), as well as in the narrator’s formative
stages. Furthermore, the study investigates the representation of the maternal archetype based on the theories of Carl Gustav Jung (2016, 2018), complemented by Murdock’s contributions (2022 [1990]). To deepen the reflection on the role of women
in society and the representation of the feminine in literature, this investigation draws on the works of authors such as Elisabeth Badinter (1985), Silvia Federici (2019), and Judith Butler (2017), employing content analysis as delineated by Laurence Bardin
(1995) as the research methodology. The aim is to illustrate how an understanding of the epic journey can contribute to the construction of a renewed narrative about the multiple forms of women’s existence and expression in society.
