The course consists in critical analysis of texts from the core canon of Italian literature, which stand out from an aesthetic, as well as civil and historical point of view, in relation to the establishment of national cultural identity.
Critical reading begins by assessing their philological and documentary features and develops through issues regarding their literary genre and the critical debates involved, while bringing out the rhetorical aspects and expressive language of these works.
Texts and Criticism:
Required reading: Decameron, full text, preferably G. Boccaccio, Decameron, edited by Vittore Branca, Torino, Einaudi, 2014, 2 voll.
A complete and detailed understanding of the author is to be acquired by reading one of the following volumes:
– Lucia Battaglia Ricci, Boccaccio, Roma, Salerno Editrice, 2000;
– Luigi Surdich, Boccaccio, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2001.
The following essays are also required:
- Erich Auerbach, Frate Alberto, in Mimesis. Il realismo nella letteratura occidentale, introduzione di Aurelio Roncaglia, Torino, Einaudi, 2010, vol. I, pp. 222-252;
- Vittore Branca, Boccaccio medievale, introduzione di Franco Cardini, Milano, Rizzoli, 2010, pp. 25-232;
- Lucia Battaglia Ricci, Scrivere un libro di novelle. Giovanni Boccaccio autore, lettore, editore, Ravenna, Longo, 2013, pp. 27-56;
- Francesco Bausi, Leggere il Decameron, Bologna, il Mulino, 2017.
Any further reading material will be assigned during the course and provided on the Moodle platform.
Learning Objectives
Knowledge
The course delves into a systematic treatment of Italian medieval literature, with particular attention to the development of the short story literary genre and to Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. Lectures will focus on a thorough analysis of this text according to historical-critical, philological and narratological criteria.
Competence
The course involves a first look at scientific editions from Italian literary tradition as well as bibliographical sources; it will also prepare students to use text commentary tools properly. Students will have a first experience with bibliographical research in the library and their public speaking skills will be refined.
This course focuses especially on developing students’ ability to analyse, read and interpret literary texts correctly.
Prerequisites
An excellent knowledge of the Italian language is necessary, as are mastery of grammatical and syntactical structures of written Italian; students must be well able to read literary and critical texts and be skilled in using dictionaries and commentaries. Finally, an important prerequisite is a thorough knowledge of Italian national history.
Teaching Methods
Lectures, possibly integrated with workshop activities involving group presentations and discussion of Decameron’s short stories.
Any supplementary materials used, such as power-point presentations or research materials in pdf format will be provided on the Moodle platform.
The main features of several digital tools will be presented during the course.
Students are encouraged to participate, ask questions and maintain a direct relationship with the professor, even during weekly consultation hours.
Further information
Students are expected to keep dutifully to attendance rules: with the exception of part-time students, the course is considered valid (and students are admitted to the examination) only if their attendance is recorded by signature for at least two thirds of the lectures. Every student must personally enrol in the course at the beginning of the lectures.
Type of Assessment
All students (even those who do not attend lectures or are participating in exchange programs) must take a final oral exam, which assesses general knowledge of all the material covered in the course.
The oral examination is an interview aimed at assessing the following learning objectives: familiarity with the bibliography and materials discussed in lectures and made available on our e-learning platform; knowledge of the distinguishing traits of Italian literature as regards the specific topic of the course; skill in using the methodological and critical tools of the discipline; skill in reading, analysis and commentating the curricular texts.
Students must demonstrate a sufficient grasp of the learning objectives for the course in order to pass the final examination.
The final mark is based on the mark obtained on the oral examination.
Course program
Course Title:
Telling short stories. The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.
The course develops around a reading of the full text of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron.
This short story collection has for centuries been the model of narrative prose; it will be analysed within the frameworks of 13th-century Italian literature and that of the author’s own path of literary exploration and experimentation.
The course will examine multiple themes: the relationship between the short stories and the frame story that unites them; the complex and varied portrayals of the mercantile and bourgeois society; the role of courtly ideals inherited from the medieval code of chivalry; the main themes of the ten days: fortune, love, wit (particularly as seen in quips and pranks); the plurilingual and multistylistic variety in the novellas’ prose.
The Decameron’s short stories will be analysed beginning from historical philological premises, and continuing through issues regarding the literary genre, theoretical and critical debates, the rhetorical basis and the structural linguistic invention of these texts.