Când Bărbaţii Trebuie Să Demonstreze Că Încă Sunt „Bărbaţi”: Masculinitatea Compensatorie în Romanele <i>Prietena Mea Genială</i> şi <i>Povestea Noului Nume</i> de Elena Ferrante

Abstract When talking about gender dynamics, there is a power disparity between men and women, which can be emphasized when men’s condition is being threatened. This is how compensatory masculinity manifests itself through abusive behavior towards people considered more vulnerable (children, women etc.) to reinforce masculine authority, when there is no financial, political or sexual stability to support it. The same phenomena may be seen in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet , in which life in a poor neighborhood on the Neapolitan outskirts, in a post-war context, leads the male characters, such as Fernando Cerullo, Rino, Nino or Donato Sarratore, to express their masculinity in violent ways. Such a study has not been applied in so much detail to Ferrante’s work. While closely observing the most relevant scenes from the Quartet ’s first two novels, My Brilliant Friend and The Story of a New Name , this research paper showcases the different levels of masculine violence, as well as compensatory masculinity’s causes and effects on the other characters. The conclusions mention the importance of Elena Ferrante’s place in world literature, thanks to her feminist perspective in these novels and to her intersectional approach.