Being and Becoming Good Ancestors

It’s a women’s dilemma, I learn from reviews of Elena Ferrante’s novel ‘The Lost Daughter’: being caught between motherhood and one’s professional career. Leda, the main character of The Lost Daughter, struggles in one sense with her academic ambition, but in another sense, the existential question of “why am I on earth?” presents itself for her. More than that, Leda’s question—according to the reviewers—touches upon the inequities in society’s expectations and interpretation(s) of motherhood and fatherhood. However, can fragments of The Lost Daughter in conversation with fragments of a religious narrative such as the Joseph novella, lead to the conclusion that The Lost Daughter is not only about motherhood, but moreover about fore-motherhood? Is it all about the question: how to be, and become, a foremother? The main character of The Lost Daughter, Leda, dreams of an academic career. We read about Leda, and see her in the movie, as she works hard on an article while also looking after her two little daughters. In one of her rare free moments,freed from her obsessive work on an article that might constitute a breakthrough in her academic career,Leda plays with her youngest daughter, pretending she is her daughter’s doll. This makes her eldest daughter jealous, and she insistently demands Leda’s attention. To satisfy her, Leda lets her play with a doll that was dear to her from her childhood. However, the child damages the doll. Driven by anger, Lena hurls the doll over the railing of the balcony. The doll falls on the asphalt; cars pass over it and mutilate it—an image from the past that has not been unwound.