Mar 28, 2024  
2016-2017 Undergraduate Bulletin 
    
2016-2017 Undergraduate Bulletin [ARCHIVED BULLETIN]

Add to Personal Catalog (opens a new window)

ITLT 042 - (LT) Lie, Cheat, and Steal: Short Stories of Decameron

Semester Hours: 3
Periodically
The course studies the vastly entertaining “human comedy” known as The Decameron and its place in the birth of the Italian short story tradition. With amusing tales populated by thieves, liars, adulterers, wily servants, scheming wives, princes, kings, pining lovers, con artists and fools, the class gauges The Decameron’s significance from a variety of perspectives: the social upheaval wrought by the 14th-century bubonic plague; the challenge to medieval stereotypes concerning gender, nobility, religion and sex; the prominent role played by women in the tales; the themes of love, fortune, and intelligence; Boccaccio’s art of storytelling and self-conscious narration; the rise of realism in early Renaissance Italian literature; and, perhaps, the suggestion of a formula for living well in troubled times. All works are read and discussed in English.

Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
(Formerly Sex, Lies and Writing: Boccaccio’s Decameron.)





Add to Personal Catalog (opens a new window)