Boccaccio's Decameron and the Italian Novella

Overview

Subject area

ITAL

Catalog Number

716

Course Title

Boccaccio's Decameron and the Italian Novella

Description

This course focuses on Boccaccio’s Decameron, widely hailed as the fundamental text of early European vernacular prose storytelling, as well as on novellas of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (by Sercambi, Sacchetti, Salernitano, Firenzuola, and Bandello, amongst others). The course explores the narrative, formal, and sociological features of each work within relevant historical and literary contexts and takes an interdisciplinary approach that can contribute to our understanding of ways of writing and reading (at times) distant from our own. The course also includes a discussion of the impact of Pietro Bembo’s evaluation of the Decameron on its reception history and on the numerous novella collections of the Renaissance.

Typically Offered

Fall, Spring

Academic Career

Graduate

Liberal Arts

Yes

Credits

Minimum Units

3

Maximum Units

3

Academic Progress Units

3

Repeat For Credit

No

Components

Name

Lecture

Hours

3

Course Schedule