Is Privacy A 'Right' For Writers

    • ET
    • Publish Date: Oct 4 2016 6:07PM
    • |
    • Updated Date: Oct 7 2016 12:56PM
Is Privacy A 'Right' For Writers

One of literature's unresolved mysteries appears to have been cracked with the unmasking of the true identity of Italian publishing sensation Elena Ferrante. In its wake, a literary row has erupted over journalistic ethics and writers' right to protect their identities and the personal back stories that may, or may not, inform their work.
Read the story, then tell us if you whether an author has a right to hide their true identity. 


What sparked this debate: 

Claudio Gatti, an Italian investigative journalist, says he has established that Ferrante is a pen name for Anita Raja, a Rome-based translator who is married to a well-known novelist, Domenico Starnone. Ferrante's best-selling novels, particularly her Naples-based quartet, have been acclaimed for their intricate, compelling storytelling and insights into the nature of female friendship. Her success has been fuelled by media interest in the mystery over the author's identity with the until-now anonymous Ferrante having granted only a handful of interviews conducted via emails passed on by her publisher. Gatti's scoop was based on records of payments made by Ferrante's publishers, for whom Raja also worked, which appear to correspond to the royalties the best-selling novelist would have been due. And if the reporter is correct, it appears that the author of 'My Brilliant Friend' has been complicit in misleading the literary world and her millions of fans into the belief that she was the daughter of a Neapolitan seamstress familiar with the backdrop of post-war poverty against which her most famous novels are set. 

Many novelists have come out in support of Ferrante's right to keep her identity secret. Here's what they said. 

1. Ferrente's publisher, Edizioni E/O, declined to comment further after its co-owner, Sandro Ferri, appeared to implicitly confirm the story by blasting Gatti's alleged intrusion into the privacy of a writer who, he said, simply wanted to concentrate on her work. "I find disgusting the kind of journalism that breaches privacy and treats writers like mafia gangsters," Ferri told La Repubblica. 

2. British academic Katherine Angel claimed the reporter had gone after Ferrante as if she were "a corrupt politician hiding tax evasion" when in fact she had done nothing to deserve such intrusion. 
"A writer does not owe their reader anything beyond their work," Angel told the BBC.

3. Novelist JoJo Moyes weighed in on Twitter. "Maybe Elena Ferrante has very good reasons to write under a pseudonym. It's not our 'right' to know her," she wrote.

4. Novelist Matt Haig added: "Think the pursuit to discover the 'real' Elena Ferrante is a disgrace and also pointless," he tweeted. "A writer's truest self is the books they write."

Gatti defended himself saying that Ferrente has lied and that an author is a 'public figure'

Gatti hit back, insisting his story was legitimate because Ferrante was a public figure and because she had "lied" about her life story. "When millions of books are bought by readers -- in a way I think readers acquire the right to know something about the person who created the book," the journalist told BBC Radio 4. Gatti argued this was particularly true in light of Ferrante's publication in 2003 of "Frantumaglia", an ostensibly autobiographical collection of non-fiction writings which the reporter described as "full of untruths". "As a journalist I don't like lies and I chose to expose them," Gatti said.


What do you think reader? Is it your right to know the real identity of your favourite author, or you are okay if they don't reveal who they are. Does that affect your view of an author or their work?  

 

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Comments

Tanya Singh BHAWAN VIDYALAYA CHD-SEC-27

A writer should have some privacy with regards to revealing his/her identity. It would not matter to me in the very least who the author is as long as the work is true, honest and original. A writer is known for his/ her work not what his/her name or identity ought to be.

Prakash.B Bethel Mat Hr Sec School

Teahouses a writer must have a privacy....

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