Ideology of the Decameron

This work studies the roles of ideology in the production of literature by linguistic and structural analyses of Boccaccio's Decameron. The repeated discursive structure of each novella is analysed to show Boccaccio's understanding of causality. Narrative outcomes are surveyed to show the treatment of characters according to gender, social class, and place of origin. Historical references are compared to their sources to show Boccaccio's political and narrative concerns. This comprehensive analysis produces a new explanation of Boccaccio's beliefs. The final chapters show that when combined with Boccaccio's aesthetic program and applied to his sources, these ideological beliefs generate the text.