Decameron

How novellas should be read

A clear intent of the narrative style of the Decameron is that of creating a realistic sensation, an objective that justifies the treatment of a theme that is as varied as the world it aims to replicate. A reflection of this plurality of topics is to be found in the diverse connotations that the novella takes on “thus generating a virtually infinite list of narrative sub-genres: the motto-novella, the romance-novella, the mocking-novella, the contrast-novella, the exemplary novella, etc.”[1]. To this plurality of registers, which upon closer scrutiny already appears obvious in the author’s own statement of intention, where Boccaccio declares he wants to narrate “cento novelle, o favole o parabole o istorie”- a hundred novellas, or fables, or parables or stories (I: Proemio, 13[2]), is associated the structural novelty of the cornice or framework, a sort of “macro-novella” of the events in the life of the brigade. The introduction of this narrative element, capable of guaranteeing cohesion and a link between the single units of the tale, is not without its effects on the codification of the genre that is the “novella”.

If the brigade can be identified as a sort of mirror image of the public of the age of the Decameron[3], then Boccaccio would seem to have given his readers, within the so called “cornice” or framework, an exemplification of the type of fruition best suited to the purpose of drawing pleasure from the text. That to a successful execution of the novellas from a literary point of view was entrusted a considerable part of the success of the genre is testified to by the episode that occurs to Madonna Oretta (VI, 1), on the indisputable metatextual value of which all critics seem to agree upon[4]. In net opposition to the uncertain actio of the knight in VI, 1, the skilful recital of the text, accomplished in turn by the young members of the brigade, gives the action within the novella a “theatrical” feel thanks to the discreet form of reading out loud before a restricted group of listeners.  These are the conditions necessary for the enactment of the novella and an integral part of the specificity of the genre.

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[1]L. Battaglia Ricci, Boccaccio, Rome 2000, p. 139.

[2]Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron, ed. V. Branca, Turin 1999, vol. I, 9.

[3]On this theme cfr. G. Baldissone, Le voci della novella. Storia di una scrittura da ascolto, Florence, 1992, pp. 7-43; M. Bevilacqua, La brigata: ovvero il soggetto fruitore e produttore delle novelle, in L’ideologia letteraria del «Decameron», Rome 1978, pp. 23-34; C. Perrus, Remarques sur les rapports entre écrivain et public dans le «Décaméron» de Boccace, in La nouvelle critique, spécial 39 bis, Littérature ert idéologies, 1970, pp. 294-299; A. Stäuble, La brigata del «Decameron» come pubblico teatrale, “Studi sul Boccaccio”, IX (1975-76), pp. 105-17.

[4]Cfr. A synthetic ricapitulation in L. Surdich, Boccaccio, Bari 2001, p. 117 e sgg.