Decameron

3.0 credits · Graduate

This seminar is dedicated to an in-depth study of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (1349-1351), a masterpiece of Italian literature whose popularity has been renewed as it has been proclaimed "the 14th-century Italian book that shows us how to survive "coronavirus" and the "medieval book to read while under quarantine." Particular attention will be dedicated to: gender; social class; the ethical dimension of literature; Boccaccio's refashioning of Italian, Latin, French, and Provencal source material. Knowledge of Italian is not required.