In reports dating to at least 2006 (by Luigi Galella), and more recent scholarly work appearing in 2017 (by Arjuna Tuzzi and Michele A. Cortelazzo of the University of Padova), work focused on textual similarities between authors, Starnone has been proposed to be the Italian author writing under the pen name, Elena Ferrante,[1][non-primary source needed] a role also suggested for his wife, Anita Raja, based on a financial analysis.[2][3][4][5]Ferrante has, via published interviews, dismissed the allegation, stating "My identity, my sex can be found in my writing" and suggesting that the attention to the question was more illustrative of the character of contemporary Italians than anything else.[6] Starnone, for his part, in the press and in his books, strenuously denies his being the author behind Ferrante's works, arguing other obvious contextual reasons for the analysed textual similarities.[1]
This section needs expansionwith: a further standard, fully source-derived presentation of this subject's well documented career. You can help by adding to it. (June 2023)
This section needs expansionwith: further development of the Gatti claim from independent sources, and the same regarding the primary source-based Tuzzi-Cortelazzo claim. You can help by adding to it. (June 2023)
As early as 2006, Luigi Galella had published the view that a computer analysis looking for similarity in textual style supported the conclusion that Domenico Starnone was the author using the pen nameElena Ferrante (author of many works including L'amore molesto and I giorni dell'abbandono[citation needed]).[7][full citation needed] In 2016, Italian journalist Claudio Gatti published the claim that Starnone's wife, Anita Raja, had a history of financial benefits that correlated with the publication and sale of books written by Elena Ferrante, leading Gatti to conclude that it was Raja that was, in fact, Ferrante.[2][3][full citation needed][4][non-primary source needed][5][8] In a collection of interviews published in 2016, the Frantumaglia: A Writer's Journey, Ferrante has spoken up to address the speculations, writing with regard to her chosen anonymity and Starnone's being "tired of everyone asking if he's Ferrante", that
he's [Starnone's] right and I feel guilty. But I hold him in great esteem and I'm certain that he understands my motivations. My identity, my sex can be found in my writing. Everything that has sprouted up around that is yet more evidence of the character of Italians in the first years of the twenty-first century."[6]
In 2017, Arjuna Tuzzi and Michele A. Cortelazzo of the University of Padova in Italy published the results of their research comparing the use of the Italian language by Elena Ferrante in the 7 published novels of that author in comparison with a corpus of 150 novels from published in Italian over the preceding 30 years,[1][non-primary source needed] a corpus that included novels by 39 authors:
(i) associated with Campania, as culturally and linguistically representative of Ferrante's Naples,
(ii) suggested by other investigators to be "the true identity" of Ferrante,
(iii) publicly successful in Italy as judged by literary prizes awarded or numbers of copies sold, and/or
intentionally omitted from the corpus were Anita Raja's translations (as well as other works both satisfying and failing to satisfy these criteria).[1][non-primary source needed] The attempt by Tuzzi and Cortelazzo to "identify the similarities and differences between [Ferrante's] work and those of other authors" proceeded using methods of principal components analysis to map content between the two sets of works using "word tokens" from each, and then a quantitative linguistics method to establish "intertextual distance" based on the work of Cyril Labbé, to measure similarity between the novels in each set.[1] These scholars conclude this primary research work, stating
Amongst the authors included, Domenico Starnone, who has been previously identified by other investigations as the possible hand behind this pen name, is the author who has written novels most similar to those of Ferrante and which, over time, [have] become progressively more similar... in graphical representations of the measures of similarity, the novels of these two authors are almost inextricably intertwined... Of the thirty-nine authors that have been taken into consideration, Starnone is the only author who demonstrates clear-cut and consistent similarities with Ferrante.[1]
However, in qualifying the results of their research—qualifications only represented here in part—Tuzzi and Cortelazzo note among other unanswered questions that the Ferrante works might be "...the fruit of a clear sit-down project, a meeting of minds—and hands—that consequentially resulted in writing that is unique to drafting and editing methods", noting also that
There is... the possibility that the author who hides behind the pen name Elena Ferrante has never been identified or taken into consideration, either in our research or in that of other scholars. It is also possible their only creative act has been the writing of the novels signed by Elena Ferrante; if he or she is a writer who has never written other novels under their real name, then we would be lacking the textual data necessary for comparison against the work produced by Elena Ferrante. In this case, it would be practically impossible to identify the author.[1]
Starnone, for his part, has "strenuously denied all... hypotheses that implicate him as the... hand behind... Elena Ferrante", doing so in his interactions with the press and in his books, arguing that the two sets of novels (his and Ferrante's) display the alleged similarities because of their common Neopolitan contexts, common periods in history, and similar types of families and their experiences.[1][non-primary source needed] Thus, the alleged associations by Gatti and Tuzzi and Cortelazzo of Ferrante with Raja alone, Starnone alone, or Raja and Starnone together, from these financial and linguistic investigations—as of 2023, both from single primary sources and neither yet substantiated by others—is suggestive, but remains to be further investigated.[1][non-primary source needed][4][5]
This section needs expansionwith: full bibliographic entries for each purported work, and sourcing to establish authorship. You can help by adding to it. (June 2023)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Tuzzi, Arjuna; Cortelazzo, Michele A. (September 2018) [19 January 2018]. "What is Elena Ferrante? A Comparative Analysis of a Secretive Bestselling Italian Writer"(PDF). Digital Scholarship in the Humanities. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press on behalf of The European Association for Digital Humanities. 33 (3): 685–702, esp. pp. 685-688, 691, 698. doi:10.1093/llc/fqx066. Retrieved June 12, 2023. [Quote, p. 698] Elena Ferrante stands out as having a linguistic profile that is clearly defined and undeniably peculiar. To what this individuality is due, is not clear. Is Elena Ferrante representative of a different genre? Is she the initiator of a new method of writing? Or is her work the fruit of a clear sit-down project, a meeting of minds—and hands—that consequentially resulted in writing that is unique to drafting and editing methods? We do not have an answer to these questions as they require further research—both quantitative and qualitative. / ... / Domenico Starnone, both in one of his books [citing citation 4 therein] and his interactions with the press, has strenuously denied all of the hypotheses that implicate him as the mysterious hand behind the pseudonym of Elena Ferrante. According to what Starnone (2011) wrote in his novel Autobiografia erotica di Aristide Gambìa [Erotic Autobiography of Aristide Gambìa] he and Ferrante are similar because they tell the stories of similar families, set in a context that is the fruit of their common experiences in Naples and of a precise period in history. But in truth, [Tuzzi and Cortelazzo continue] it is rather difficult to imagine that Starnone has not played any role in the planning and/or the drafting of Ferrante's work.
1 2 3 Gatti, Claudio (2 October 2016). "The Story Behind a Name". NYBooks.com. New York, NY: NYREV, Inc. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
1 2 3 Note, the three references to works by journalist Gatti are to three presentations of the same investigation, in three periodicals, and therefore constitute a single research observation (and not three independent ones). See the foregoing NYBooks.com citation, which bears the following disclaimer: "[T]he two-part investigation of Elena Ferrante by Claudio Gatti was undertaken on behalf of Mr. Gatti’s Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. After the Il Sole investigation was completed and definitely scheduled to appear on October 2 in Il Sole as well as in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and on the French website Mediapart, an English version of both articles was offered to the NYR Daily for publication on the same day. We regret any confusion about the origins of the Il Sole investigation and publication."
1 2 Ferrante, Elena (2016). "Never Lower Your Guard". Frantumaglia: A Writer's Journey. Translated by Goldstein, Ann. New York, NY: Europa Editions. pp.§3, Ch. 5. ISBN9781609453046. OCLC1035130925.[pageneeded]
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