"In Toni Morrison's Sula, the title character and Nel are friends and enemies all at once: Nel envies and eventually hates Sula but, at the end of the novel, finds herself entirely bereft without her. In Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels, Lila and Elena are united by their similarities in an unforgiving world, until their differences send them hurtling away from each other."
"The stories are almost always about a pair of girls of similar ages, evenly matched in intellect, status, or beauty; the dyad is usually inseparable, at least at first. The two also typically resent and compete with each other, measuring themselves against their double. In many cases, they feel a confusing mix of contempt and desire (these books are best when they delve into their characters' ugly feelings or the erotic tension between them)."
Toni Morrison's Sula and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels showcase friendships that are simultaneously intimate and adversarial, where similarity breeds both bond and competition. Contemporary narratives increasingly center on pairs of women who are evenly matched in intellect, status, or beauty and who oscillate between devotion and resentment. These relationships often contain an erotic or deeply conflicted emotional current and tend to fracture by adulthood, leaving lingering questions about the costs of separation. The Neapolitan novels' success has influenced lighter genres, and recent fiction continues to explore provocative connections between creative women across eras.
Read at The Atlantic
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