Boccaccio's Decameron

One of the most important and influential works of the middle ages-and a lot funnier than the Divine Comedy. Boccaccio's Decameron, written in the midst of the social disruption caused by the Black Death (1348), may have held readers attention for centuries because of its bawdiness, but it is also a profound exploration into the basis of faith and the meaning of death, the status of language, the construction of social hierarchy and social order, and the nature of crisis and historical change. Framed by a story telling contest between seven young ladies and three young men who have left the city to avoid the plague, the one hundred stories of the Decameron form a structural masterpiece that anticipates Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Renaissance epics, and the modern short story. We will especially focus on how the work explores the intersection of legal and literary representation but students will be encouraged to further explore in individual projects the many topics raised by the text, including (and in addition to the themes mentioned above) magic, the visual arts, mercantile culture, travel and discovery, and new religious practices.