WEEKLY SYLLABUS

Week 1: Monday 29 January

• Introduction. Boccaccio's life and works. Before the Decameron: the origin of Literature. The 14th Century. Readings (handout): Dante's Francesca; Novellino, prologue. Boccaccio, Filocolo, book IV: “Questions of Love”; Fiammetta, introduction.
  (N.B.: When clicking on links to the encoded texts, please be patient, as it may take a minute.)

Week 2: Monday 5 February

• Fiammetta. “Questions of Love.” (handout). Dante's Francesca, Boccaccio's commentary-novella, and the title of the Decameron.
• Research: Filocolo, Questions.

Week 3: Monday 12 February

• Pampinea. The Prologue. The Brigata.
• Introduction, and First Day of First Week (martedì, mercoledì): Plague and Escape; Choosing a Head and Writing the Rules.
• Reading: Tales 1-4. Research: 1. Plague; 2. Rule of St. Benedict (handout).

Week 4: Mon 19 February – no class

Week 5: Monday 26 February

• I.First Day, Tales 5-10. Free subject: Many heads, feet of clay.
• Speaking truth to power. Research: 1. Ideas of the Book. 2. Astrology in the Decameron? [First short paper due].

Week 6: Monday 5 March

• Filomena. Second Day of First Week.
• Research: 1. Fortune
• 2. Maps, the growing Oikoumene.
• 3. Marco Polo, Il Milione, prologue (handout).

Week 7: Monday 12 March

• Neifile. II. First Day of Second Week.
• New Venue. Sex, Misogyny, Chastity and Double-talk.
• Research: 1. Paradise and the Garden.

Week 8: Monday 19 March

• Filostrato. IV. Second Day of Second Week (Monday).
• Authorial defense and Narrator's Tale of Filippo Balducci.
• Research: 1. Medical schools and the anatomized body.
• 2. Tragedy.

Week 9: Spring Break.

Week 10: Monday 2 April

• Fiammetta. V. Third Day of Second Week (Tuesday).
• Tempering Love and War; comedy, marriage; the Center of the Decameron.
• Research: 1. Pyramus and Thisbe (handout). 2. Numbers and Middles.

Week 11: Monday 9 April

• Elissa. VI. Fourth Day of Second Week (Wednesday).
• Fast words and social realignment; Metanarrative.
• Research: 1. Frames. [Second short paper due]

Week 12: Monday 16 April

• Dioneo. VII. Fifth Day of Second Week (Thursday).
• The Decameron and the Corbaccio: Women and misogyny?
• New Venue: Valley of Ladies; Female bodies and the Nature of Getting Even.
• Research: 1. microcosmic imagery.

Week 13: Monday 23 April

• Emilia and Lauretta. VIII-IX First and Second Days (Sunday, Monday) of Third Week.
• Generalizing Trickery, another Free Day; returning to the “workaday.” Especially: VIII.3, 6, 7, 9, 10; IX.3, 4, 5, 8, 10.
• Research: 1. Magic, 2. Ledgers.

Week 14: Monday 30 April

• Panfilo. X. Third Day of Third Week (Tuesday) and conclusion; return home (Wednesday);
• Matching Dante's ; recycling the Questions. A final defense.