ABSTRACT
This article explores how Alice Sebold and Elena Ferranteplace the feminine—and indeed often the maternal—body at the very centre of their narratives. The body—as a locus thatfilters the broader tensions and conflicts experienced by theirfemale protagonists—in fact emerges as a key site of 'contestation' in their works. Through a close analysis of a selection of ekphrastic images, and photographic metatexts in particular, the author draws attention to how the two authors employ textual negotiations of the feminine body to question and problematize normative conceptions of femininity and motherhood. Ultimately, the author suggests that they not only challenge but also shift the perspective of, or indeed refocalize the dominant visual narrative of, the maternal/feminine body and the long history of objectfication of the latter. In so doing, the author situates the two writers at the forefront of rethinking contemporary constructs of maternity and femininity.
