A01=Katherine A. Brown
and practical jokes
Author_Katherine A. Brown
Category=DSB
Category=DSBB
Category=DSRC
classic
comic or satirical tales
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Fabliaux
Giovanni Boccaccio's masterpiece
humor and ribaldry
literary models
literary themes and devices
manipulations
medieval France
model texts
narrative structure
Old French manuscripts
organization of the Decameron
rhetoric
Short works
tale of death
tales of wit
the Decameron
wandering minstrels
wisdom
Product details
- ISBN 9780813068275
- Weight: 341g
- Dimensions: 151 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 05 May 2020
- Publisher: University Press of Florida
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Short works known for their humor and ribaldry, the fabliaux were comic or satirical tales told by wandering minstrels in medieval France. Although the fabliaux are widely acknowledged as inspiring Giovanni Boccaccio's masterpiece, the Decameron, this theory has never been substantiated beyond perceived commonalities in length and theme. This new and provocative interpretation examines the formal similarities between the Decameron's tales of wit, wisdom, and practical jokes and the popular thirteenth-century fabliaux.
Katherine Brown examines these works through a prism of reversal and chiasmus to show that Boccaccio was not only inspired by the content of the fabliaux but also by their fundamental design--where a passage of truth could be read as a lie or a tale of life as a tale of death. Brown reveals close resemblances in rhetoric, literary models, and narrative structure to demonstrate how the Old French manuscripts of the fabliaux were adapted in the organization of the Decameron.
Identifying specific examples of fabliaux transformed by Boccaccio for his classic Decameron, Brown shows how Boccaccio refashioned borrowed literary themes and devices, playing with endless possibilities of literary creation through manipulations of his model texts.
Katherine Brown examines these works through a prism of reversal and chiasmus to show that Boccaccio was not only inspired by the content of the fabliaux but also by their fundamental design--where a passage of truth could be read as a lie or a tale of life as a tale of death. Brown reveals close resemblances in rhetoric, literary models, and narrative structure to demonstrate how the Old French manuscripts of the fabliaux were adapted in the organization of the Decameron.
Identifying specific examples of fabliaux transformed by Boccaccio for his classic Decameron, Brown shows how Boccaccio refashioned borrowed literary themes and devices, playing with endless possibilities of literary creation through manipulations of his model texts.
Katherine A. Brown is a specialist of medieval French and Italian literature.
