Elena Ferrante doxxing: Authors and fans react to the revelation of the author's identity

When Italian journalist Claudio Gatti revealed the identity of an Italian novelist who goes by the pseudonym Elena Ferrante, it took the whole literary world by storm. Social media was divided over the revelation published in the New York Review of Books.

While some were fine with the investigation into her identity, others believed that Gatti’s actions were a gross violation of Ferrante’s right to privacy. The writer has guarded her identity since the release of her very first novel in 1992.

The anonymity was a part of the renowned novelist’s writing as she explained in an interview with The Guardian , “No, Elena Ferrante is the author of several novels. There is nothing mysterious about her, given how she manifests herself – perhaps even too much – in her own writing, the place where her creative life transpires in absolute fullness. What I mean is that the author is the sum of the expressive strategies that shape an invented world, a concrete world that is populated with people and events. The rest is ordinary private life.” Hence it made people anxious about how the development would affect Ferrante’s writing. Others argued that this was bound to happen as she was an acclaimed author in the public sphere.

An article in Jezebel even went so far as to say that the journalist doxxed Elena Ferrante using financial journalism, referring to how Gatti found out that about the writer through scrutinising her payments that were allegedly made by Ferrante’s publisher Edizione E/O.

Here are some of the reactions and insights into the implications that this disclosure will have:

[View the story “Lili Loofbourow on Elena Ferrante revelation " on Storify>

[View the story “Aaron Bady on Elena Ferrante revelation” on Storify>

[View the story “Aaron Bady on Elena Ferrante revelation” on Storify>

Anything I possibly need to know about Elena Ferrante is already in her beautiful books.

— Emily Gray Tedrowe (@egtedrowe) October 2, 2016

I'm going on the record to say I think it's okay to be curious about Ferrante's identity and okay to uncover it. It concerns me that people>

— Ann Brocklehurst (@AnnB03) October 2, 2016

>are coming to see anonymity and pseudonymity as sacred rights. Each individual case is different

— Ann Brocklehurst (@AnnB03) October 2, 2016

What kind of person reads #ElenaFerrante and gets hung up on her anonymity instead of, idk, her beautiful rendering of female friendships?

— rach against the machine (@rchlmllnd) October 2, 2016

Shameful. If Elena Ferrante doesn't write another book, it is because of the attention-hungry egos of Claudio Gatti & @nybooks editors.

— Kimberly Burns @kimberlyburns on Bluesky (@kimberlyburnspr) October 2, 2016