Literary Study; Introduction to Boccaccio

I. Introduction to Literary Study: Getting It

A. You’re already a critic.

B. Literary Criticism

C. Literary Knowledge

II. Introduction to the Class

A. Course Objectives

B. Requirements

C. Content and Skill

III. The Books and Authors

A. Two Authors of Tales: Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron and Marguerite de Navarre, The Heptameron

B. A Play and Poems by a Playwright: Lope de Vega, Fuente Ovenjuna and William Shakespeare, The Sonnets

C. French Philosophy: Rene Descartes,  Meditations on First Philosophy

D. Satire: Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

E. Opera: Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro

IV. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) and His World

A. The End of the Middle Ages and the Beginning of the Renaissance

B. The Rise of the Merchant Class: Giovanni’s Father, Boccaccino di Chellino

C. Men of Letters: Early Renaissance Intellectual Life

D. The Calamitous Fourteenth Century and the Black Plague of 1348

V. Introduction to Boccaccio’s Decameron

A. The Narrative Frame

B. The Stories