Florence and the Florentines in Dante's Comedy and Boccaccio's Decameron

The course will introduce students to the history of Italian Literature, focusing on great masterpieces (in English translation) from the 14th century. A multidisciplinary approach, dealing with social, political, historical and philosophical implications will provide further understanding by placing literary works in a comprehensive cultural context. Special emphasis will be placed on the impact of Italian literature in European culture in pre-modern age, stressing the broad influence of Dante's Divine Comedy and Boccaccio's Decameron. Literary issues such as the great divide between high and low literature, the question of language, the relation between classical, Christian and chivalric epics, the concept of originality in the Middle Ages, the circulation of books and the development of a reading public will be thoroughly investigated.