“It is human to have compassion for the suffering.” So begins Giovanni Boccaccio’s extraordinary classic, the Decameron, a collection of one hundred short stories written in 1353, just five years after the Great Plague of 1348 that claimed millions of lives throughout Europe and more than half of the population of Boccaccio’s hometown, Florence. Boccaccio’s work has long been celebrated for its bawdy humor and open exploration of sexuality in stories that include a hardened criminal on his death bed tricking a gullible priest, an arrogant horse dealer who falls into a sewer after being duped by a prostitute pretending to be his sister, and a group of enterprising nuns who discreetly employ a gardener to satisfy their carnal urges. Less known are the profound undercurrents swirling beneath Boccaccio’s entertaining narratives, as he explores such key issues as how to rebuild a world devastated by pandemic, the role of women as readers in Europe’s new literary culture, and the creation of the “Renaissance” itself through the reanimation of long-lost pagan and classical traditions.

COURSE FORMAT
This is an interactive online seminar course that meets weekly over 6 weeks. Live online sessions will use the zoom platform. Weekly reading or other forms of materials may be assigned. Weekly sessions will be recorded and available for registered participants to access throughout the course.
There are no papers or grades. This course does not offer any credits or certificates. This course is intended for learning for the love of learning.

COURSE MATERIALS
This course will require reading materials:
Giovanni Boccaccio, DECAMERON (trans. Wayne Rebhorn), Norton 2013 (paperback, ISBN 978-0-393-35026-5

Registrants will receive access to the course website and the zoom links about two weeks before the course starts.

COURSE CANCELLATION POLICY
Registrants can cancel and receive a full refund up to March 3. After March 3, there will be no refunds issued.
Yale Alumni College courses are subject to schedule changes as well as cancellations. If Yale Alumni College must cancel any course prior to its start due to low enrollment, you will be notified of this by the cancellation date. Upon cancellation of a course, registrants may transfer their registration to another available course or have the registration fee fully refunded.

In the event of a disruption to the original course schedule, including but not limited to; Professor absence, hazardous weather conditions, or local travel restrictions, Yale Alumni College will do its best to reschedule the missed class for the week immediately following the original end date at the same course time and day.

Image: By Salvatore Postiglione - Dorotheum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18936718