Law and Mimesis in Boccaccio''s Decameron - Realism on Trial

"Justin Steinberg's field-defining work on Boccaccio's Decameron shows how historical changes in the prosecution of crime profoundly influenced literary realism. Arguing that the Decameron's trials respond to a crisis in verisimilitude, the book engages scholars and students of medieval and early modern studies, literary theory and legal history"--

List of contents

Introduction; 1. The Novella on trial; 2. The artist and the Police; 3. The widow and the sovereign; 4. Torture and the sense of an ending; 5. Another way of possessing; 6. The author on trial.

About the author

Justin Steinberg is Professor of Medieval Italian literature at the University of Chicago and Editor-in Chief of the journal Dante Studies. He is the author of Accounting for Dante: Urban Readers and Writers in Late Medieval Italy (2007), recipient of the MLA's Scaglione Publication Prize, and Dante and the Limits of the Law (2014), recipient of the MLA's Marraro Prize. He is co-editor with Roberto Rea of the handbook Dante (2020). He has previously held named visiting professorships at Toronto and Jerusalem, as well as at Harvard's Villa I Tatti.

Summary

Justin Steinberg's field-defining work on Boccaccio's Decameron shows how historical changes in the prosecution of crime profoundly influenced literary realism. Arguing that the Decameron's trials respond to a crisis in verisimilitude, the book engages scholars and students of medieval and early modern studies, literary theory and legal history.

Product details

• Authors: Justin Steinberg, Justin (University of Chicago) Steinberg, Steinberg Justin
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.09.2023
• EAN: 9781316512746
• ISBN: 978-1-316-51274-6
• No. of pages: 270
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; European History, LAW / Legal History, LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / Italian, Medieval History, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Legal History, Italian, European history: medieval period, middle ages, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, HISTORY / Europe / Medieval