(De)Queering Elena Ferrante: The Screen Adaptations of Troubling Love, The Days of Abandonment, and My Brilliant Friend

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | In this talk, Dr. Roberta Tabanelli will analyze three adaptations of Elena Ferrante’s novels: the feature-length films Troubling Love (Mario Martone, 1995) and The Days of Abandonment (Roberto Faenza, 2005) and the television series My Brilliant Friend (Saverio Costanzo, 2018). Following the concepts on ‘queer adaptation’ elaborated by Pamela Demory, we discuss whether and how the screen adaptations of Elena Ferrante’s novels have queered (i.e., intensified or added) or de-queered (i.e., reduced or erased) the source books. In particular, looking at how divergences from the literary source have created, redirected, or dismissed queerness in the adaptations, and how the cinematic apparatus (e.g., camerawork, montage, sound, etc.) may have constructed or deconstructed forms of thematic or stylistic queerness.

Roberta Tabanelli is an Associate Professor of Italian and Affiliate Faculty of Film Studies & Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Missouri.

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