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| Revelation Surrounding Novelist Elena Ferrante Exposes Cultural Differences | Revelation Surrounding Novelist Elena Ferrante Exposes Cultural Differences |
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| PARIS — The apparent unmasking of an Italian translator as the pseudonymous best-selling novelist Elena Ferrante has sparked a trans-Atlantic backlash against the publication of the findings earlier this month. But the responses to those findings also reveal a telling divide over what inspires that anger. | PARIS — The apparent unmasking of an Italian translator as the pseudonymous best-selling novelist Elena Ferrante has sparked a trans-Atlantic backlash against the publication of the findings earlier this month. But the responses to those findings also reveal a telling divide over what inspires that anger. |
| In the United States and Britain, the investigation into Ms. Ferrante’s true identity has been viewed by a vocal contingent through the lens of gender. Critics have accused the journalist who conducted it and the publications where his findings appeared of sexism. But in continental Europe, the criticisms have focused on invasion of privacy issues. | In the United States and Britain, the investigation into Ms. Ferrante’s true identity has been viewed by a vocal contingent through the lens of gender. Critics have accused the journalist who conducted it and the publications where his findings appeared of sexism. But in continental Europe, the criticisms have focused on invasion of privacy issues. |
| “In much of Europe they care intensely about privacy; they don’t think that you forfeit your right to privacy by making art,” said Lorin Stein, editor of The Paris Review, which published a long interview with Ms. Ferrante last year, conducted by her publishers. “Meanwhile, in the States, we’re especially attuned to the problems facing women writers in particular.” | “In much of Europe they care intensely about privacy; they don’t think that you forfeit your right to privacy by making art,” said Lorin Stein, editor of The Paris Review, which published a long interview with Ms. Ferrante last year, conducted by her publishers. “Meanwhile, in the States, we’re especially attuned to the problems facing women writers in particular.” |
| Ms. Ferrante’s series of four Neapolitan novels, which traces the complex friendship of two women against the backdrop of Italian postwar history, came out in Italian and English from 2012 to 2015 and has resonated deeply with readers, especially women. There are 2.6 million copies in print in English, and the books have been published in 40 countries. | Ms. Ferrante’s series of four Neapolitan novels, which traces the complex friendship of two women against the backdrop of Italian postwar history, came out in Italian and English from 2012 to 2015 and has resonated deeply with readers, especially women. There are 2.6 million copies in print in English, and the books have been published in 40 countries. |
| In a report published simultaneously on Oct. 2 on The New York Review of Books website, as well as in French, German and Italian publications, Claudio Gatti, an investigative reporter for the Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, said financial and real estate records led him to conclude that Anita Raja, a recently retired public librarian, literary translator and consultant at Ms. Ferrante’s Rome-based publishing house, Edizioni E/O, was actually Ms. Ferrante. Particularly convincing for him: Payments from the publishing house to Ms. Raja rose sharply in 2014 and 2015, when the Neapolitan novels became international best sellers. | In a report published simultaneously on Oct. 2 on The New York Review of Books website, as well as in French, German and Italian publications, Claudio Gatti, an investigative reporter for the Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, said financial and real estate records led him to conclude that Anita Raja, a recently retired public librarian, literary translator and consultant at Ms. Ferrante’s Rome-based publishing house, Edizioni E/O, was actually Ms. Ferrante. Particularly convincing for him: Payments from the publishing house to Ms. Raja rose sharply in 2014 and 2015, when the Neapolitan novels became international best sellers. |
| Though there have been a number of defenses of Mr. Gatti’s work, the outcry against it in the United States and Britain dominated the news cycle. In The New Republic, Charlotte Shane wrote a critique titled “The Sexist Big Reveal.” Others compared it to sexual assault. | Though there have been a number of defenses of Mr. Gatti’s work, the outcry against it in the United States and Britain dominated the news cycle. In The New Republic, Charlotte Shane wrote a critique titled “The Sexist Big Reveal.” Others compared it to sexual assault. |
| The American novelist Jennifer Weiner, a vocal critic of what she sees as bias against women in publishing, wrote on Twitter: “Q’s about work/life balance. Profiles with descriptions of her looks or clothes. What else did Elena Ferrante dodge by remaining anonymous?” | The American novelist Jennifer Weiner, a vocal critic of what she sees as bias against women in publishing, wrote on Twitter: “Q’s about work/life balance. Profiles with descriptions of her looks or clothes. What else did Elena Ferrante dodge by remaining anonymous?” |
| Later last week, the British novelist Jeanette Winterson contributed a column to The Guardian inveighing against the report’s “malice and sexism.” “At the bottom of this so-called investigation into Ferrante’s identity is an obsessional outrage at the success of a writer — female — who decided to write, publish and promote her books on her own terms,” she wrote. | Later last week, the British novelist Jeanette Winterson contributed a column to The Guardian inveighing against the report’s “malice and sexism.” “At the bottom of this so-called investigation into Ferrante’s identity is an obsessional outrage at the success of a writer — female — who decided to write, publish and promote her books on her own terms,” she wrote. |
| But in continental Europe the response less often invoked feminism and focused on privacy, a sensitive issue for many Europeans, personally and politically. Europe’s highest court has ruled that Google had to allow people to erase links they found compromising and regulators have also questioned Facebook’s privacy policy. | But in continental Europe the response less often invoked feminism and focused on privacy, a sensitive issue for many Europeans, personally and politically. Europe’s highest court has ruled that Google had to allow people to erase links they found compromising and regulators have also questioned Facebook’s privacy policy. |
| In France, revealing Ms. Ferrante’s identity was generally seen as rude, not sexist. | |
| “It’s a bit as if a GoPro camera had been installed in Salinger’s garden at his house in Cornish, New Hampshire, to show us the recluse while he watered his geraniums,” the French daily Libération wrote of that reclusive novelist. In France, where two of the four Neapolitan novels have been released since last year and became best sellers, people are strong believers in the idea of a “jardin secret” (a secret garden), or private lives. | “It’s a bit as if a GoPro camera had been installed in Salinger’s garden at his house in Cornish, New Hampshire, to show us the recluse while he watered his geraniums,” the French daily Libération wrote of that reclusive novelist. In France, where two of the four Neapolitan novels have been released since last year and became best sellers, people are strong believers in the idea of a “jardin secret” (a secret garden), or private lives. |
| “It would be interesting if it were somebody very well known who was hiding behind Elena Ferrante, but if it’s an unknown person like Anita Raja, so what?” said Florence Noiville, the editor of foreign fiction for Le Monde des Livres, the book supplement of the French daily Le Monde. | “It would be interesting if it were somebody very well known who was hiding behind Elena Ferrante, but if it’s an unknown person like Anita Raja, so what?” said Florence Noiville, the editor of foreign fiction for Le Monde des Livres, the book supplement of the French daily Le Monde. |
| (Ms. Noiville said that Mr. Gatti had approached Le Monde with his report, but editors there declined to publish it. The New York Times also declined to publish the report, which would have involved coordinating with multiple journalistic partners.) | (Ms. Noiville said that Mr. Gatti had approached Le Monde with his report, but editors there declined to publish it. The New York Times also declined to publish the report, which would have involved coordinating with multiple journalistic partners.) |
| The responses were also about privacy in Italy, where Ms. Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, although best sellers, have had a mixed critical reception, and where Ms. Raja’s name has been mentioned for years as possibly being behind Ms. Ferrante. | The responses were also about privacy in Italy, where Ms. Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, although best sellers, have had a mixed critical reception, and where Ms. Raja’s name has been mentioned for years as possibly being behind Ms. Ferrante. |
| “I am already nostalgic for the unnamed Elena Ferrante,” the commentator Michele Serra wrote in La Repubblica. | “I am already nostalgic for the unnamed Elena Ferrante,” the commentator Michele Serra wrote in La Repubblica. |
| The New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino partly attributes the outcry to readers’ investment in Ms. Ferrante’s anonymity, which seems a political act against a culture obsessed with image. | The New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino partly attributes the outcry to readers’ investment in Ms. Ferrante’s anonymity, which seems a political act against a culture obsessed with image. |
| “The response to Gatti’s report was more heated in the States, where feminist media is mainstream and developed, celebrity narratives are politicized to a fever pitch in order to excuse our obsession with them, and the clamor of the election has served as a constant, excruciating reminder of the persistence of sexism — that even the worst man is allowed to do a thousand things that a decent woman can’t,” she wrote in an email. | “The response to Gatti’s report was more heated in the States, where feminist media is mainstream and developed, celebrity narratives are politicized to a fever pitch in order to excuse our obsession with them, and the clamor of the election has served as a constant, excruciating reminder of the persistence of sexism — that even the worst man is allowed to do a thousand things that a decent woman can’t,” she wrote in an email. |
| Sarah Churchwell, a literature professor at the School of Advanced Study at the University of London, said the question of whether women were held to a double standard was “very live” in Anglo-American culture. “It’s on people’s minds, for very good reason, and they’re primed to interpret hostile actions against women in gendered terms,” she said in an email. | Sarah Churchwell, a literature professor at the School of Advanced Study at the University of London, said the question of whether women were held to a double standard was “very live” in Anglo-American culture. “It’s on people’s minds, for very good reason, and they’re primed to interpret hostile actions against women in gendered terms,” she said in an email. |
| “The question is whether a man would have been treated to the same malice, and for myself I think that’s an open question,” she added. | “The question is whether a man would have been treated to the same malice, and for myself I think that’s an open question,” she added. |
| Some critics, including women, defended Mr. Gatti’s reporting on a newsworthy topic that had been frequently discussed in the Italian news media. In New York Magazine, Noreen Malone wrote that leaping from Mr. Gatti’s report to a conversation on “the general terribleness” of men “seems to me both an almost-insulting underestimation of the fortitude of the author, and a severe overestimation of the harm that might be done by connecting universally praised work to its actual creator.” | |
| Others noted that Ms. Raja was of Polish Jewish descent and said that if she were indeed the author of the Neapolitan novels, it was a testament to the power of the literary imagination | Others noted that Ms. Raja was of Polish Jewish descent and said that if she were indeed the author of the Neapolitan novels, it was a testament to the power of the literary imagination |
| Some said that the debates about whether Ms. Raja’s privacy had been violated were being conflated with debates about the validity of research into authors’ lives. “The result has been a theoretically incoherent attack on biographical criticism as such, informed by a defective understanding of the role that authorship plays in structuring the experience of reading novels,” Merve Emre and Len Gutkin wrote in The Los Angeles Review of Books. | |
| In an interview, Mr. Gatti said he was an investigative journalist, not a misogynist, and had wanted to solve one of the biggest literary mysteries in the world. “It turned out that she was a woman,” he said. “It could have easily turned out that it was a man.” | In an interview, Mr. Gatti said he was an investigative journalist, not a misogynist, and had wanted to solve one of the biggest literary mysteries in the world. “It turned out that she was a woman,” he said. “It could have easily turned out that it was a man.” |
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