World Literature IIRenaissance to the Present

Dr. Michael Broder

University of South Carolina

January 12, 2012

Daily Write

• Italian literary critic Umberto Bosco (1900-1987) wrote, “Boccaccio doesn’t want to teach anybody anything.” Boccaccio, however, writes that his readers will “derive from…these tales both pleasure and useful counsel, inasmuch as they will recognize what should be avoided and what should be sought after” (p. 5). What do you think of Bosco’s claim that the Decameron is all sugar and no medicine? Do you take Boccaccio’s claim to be giving “useful counsel” seriously? Why or why not?

Identifying a Text

• For every text that we study, I want us to identify it by three main categories– Author

• Nationality• Dates

– Title– Genre

Some Literary Genres

• Poem• Story• Play• Novel• Essay

The Decameron: Identification

• Author = Giovanni Boccaccio– Nationality: Italian– Dates: 1313-1375

• Title = The Decameron• Genre = It’s complicated…

The Decameron: Genre

• “I intend to tell one hundred stories, or fables, or parables, or histories, or whatever you wish to call them” (p. 5).

• “Intendo di raccontare cento novelle, o favole o parabole o istorie che dire le vogliamo.”

• The Italian term novella (story) is Boccaccio’s own invention

• The terms fable, parable, and history have classical or biblical precedents

Classical and Biblical Antecedents of Boccaccio’s Novelle

• Fable, < L fabula, a story with impossible elements (like talking animals) that illustrates a truth and conveys a moral

• Parable, < LL parabola, < G parabolē (comparison), a fictional but realistic story that illustrates a moral attitude or religious principle (like the parables in the Gospels of the New Testament)

• History, < L historia, a story about real people and places and events that really happened

So…Which Is It?

• Are Boccaccio’s novelle (stories)…– Fantastic and impossible fables?– Realistic parables with moral or religious

messages?– Actual histories about real people, places, and

events?

Boccacio Won’t Say for Sure

• “I intend to tell one hundred stories, whether you wish to call them fables, parables, histories”– Does he not know which it is?– Does he not care which it is?– Does he want the reader to decide?– Does he have something else in mind?

Novella = “Something New”

• Novella < L novellus, something new and little• Boccaccio’s novelle are…

– Different from histories, because they are fictional, not factual

– Different from fables, because they are realistic, not fantastic

– Different from parables, because their message is not based on religious teaching or traditional morality

Boccaccio’s Latin Sources

• Three of Boccaccio’s novelle have sources in classical Latin literature

• Many more stories come from medieval Latin literature

• Tales of Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian origin entered Europe during the Middle Ages through Spain

• The most popular type of story was the exemplum, a didactic tale often presenting a problematic situation and providing a solution

D. Radcliff-Umstead. 1968. “Boccaccio's Adaptation of Some Latin Sources for the Decameron.” Italica 45(2): 171-194.

Boccaccio’s novella is a generic innovation that reimagines Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian forms

of narrativity and exemplarity

“-ity”-bitty abstract suffixes

• You will find that I use a lot of words that end in -ity– Morality– Exemplarity– Narrativity

• These words all refer to abstract concepts, or the abstract quality (there he goes again) associated with a given noun or adjective

Narrativity

• The abstract quality of being a narrative (story) or having the characteristics of a narrative– Presence of a distinctive narrative voice– Characterization– Setting– Situation, conflict, plot development

• From the Latin verb narrare, to tell a story, give an account

Exemplarity

• The abstract quality of being exemplary, that is, of providing an example

• From the Latin noun exemplum, example• The most common type of exemplarity in literature

is moral exemplarity– The quality of serving as an example of right or wrong

behavior• Positive moral exemplum = example of good behavior• Negative moral exemplum = example of bad behavior

Exemplarity in Boccaccio (?)

• Boccaccio says his readers will derive from his stories “both pleasure and useful counsel, inasmuch as they will recognize what should be avoided and what should be sought after.” (p.5)

• “Useful counsel” = exempla (plural of exemplum)• “What should be sought after” = positive (moral?)

exemplum• “What should be avoided” = negative (moral?)

exemplum

Boccaccio’s Stories Are…

• Fictional but realistic or “naturalistic”– Regular people in regular settings doing things we can

imagine people really doing, even if they are improbable and exaggerated

• Based on classical and medieval Latin sources• Derived from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and

Buddhist sources• In the tradition of medieval exempla and influenced

by ancient fables, parables, and histories• Written in a novel (new, innovative, different)

manner that represented a major development in European prose fiction

For Next Tuesday

• Boccaccio, Decameron– Day 4, Story 4, pp. 303-313– Day 5, Story 10, pp. 432-440– Day 6, Story 7, pp. 462-465– Day 7, Story 2, pp. 492-497– Day 8, Story 8, pp. 614-619– Day 9, Story 2, pp. 659-662– Day 10, Story 6, pp. 729-734– Author’s Conclusion, pp. 802-807

For the Following Two Weeks

• 1/19 Rabelais, Pantagruel, pp. 1-85• 1/24 Rabelais, Pantagruel, pp. 85-164• 1/26 Rabelais, Gargantua, pp. 195-285• 1/31 Rabelais, Gargantua, pp. 285-379

Daily Write

• What point do you remember most clearly from today’s class or think was most important, and why?

World Literature IIRenaissance to the Present

Dr. Michael Broder

University of South Carolina

January 12, 2012