Boccaccio and the Rise of the Novella in Germany

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Gerhart Hoffmeister (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Domains

Literature Topic

Dates

Date of occurrence 1360-1970

Places

Germany (Location)
Italy (Involved)

Genres and Modes

Novella

Resources

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Recommended Reading

With his collection of tales the

Decameron

(manuscript 1349-53) Giovanni Boccaccio became one of the most famous authors in world literature, influential up to the twentieth century in Europe. The black death of 1348 provides the stark backdrop and frame for the inlaid 100 stories, including anecdotes, folk and fairy tales, and novellas based on extremely varied sources found in Roman antiquity, in the Orient, in French

fabliaux

(burlesque verse tales), and in the contemporary Italian scene. In the hills outside of Florence, seven patrician ladies and three men tell ten stories each from a perspective that displays the highest virtues of the rising merchant middle class – ingenuity, perspicacity, and living by one's wits – in dealing with life's challenges and the pitfalls of amorous…

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2374 words

Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "Boccaccio and the Rise of the Novella in Germany". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 June 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=13860, accessed 27 November 2024.]

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