Yeats's sensibilities, Leda, and ambiguities in Elena Ferrante's 'The Lost Daughter'

Abstract

In Leda and the Swan, one of the greatest Anglophone lyric poets of the 20th century W. B. Yeats explores the idea of a single act having tremendous importance for human history. Such a momentous event can bring about the end of civilization and become the dawn of a new age. This is a great cataclysmic moment in history (merging history and myth) for Yeats. The paper suggests that Yeats's sensibilities subtly permeate the narrative and form of Elena Ferrante's The Lost Daughter, thus illustrating the mode of ambiguous past penetrating the present-the tradition that interested Yeats - arguably becoming what in Ferrante has been seen as a form of radical and committed reflection on myriad of contemporary issues. In this context, Yeats and Ferrante communicate the ideas of fragmentation and instability, the sensation of the world crumbling and reforming, and, in doing so, they refer to an instability of boundaries and identities. This is a sensation experienced by both female protagonists - Yeats's mythical Leda and her more contemporary counterpart.