Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Week 1: Exploring the Un-Textbook

While these are out of order, I hope you'll bear with me!

Week 14- Decameron: As someone who is an Italian major, I can't pass up the opportunity to refresh myself over some of Boccaccio's novellas. From what I can see, we won't be reading some of the more scandalous stories like those similar to the one of Alibech.

Week 11 or 12- Canterbury Tales: What could be a better preview to the Decameron than works by Chaucer? While I haven't explored it myself, I've been interested at the idea that Boccaccio and Chaucer could have met. In any case, it would be a good area for me to explore to see what similarities I see between certain tales and novellas.

Week 13- Dante's Inferno: I remember seeing an episode of The Simpsons in which Homer is subjected to a form of poetic justice; he's force-fed donuts for eternity. Unfortunately, the demons of hell didn't realize that they had their work cut out for them. Homer's insatiable appetite proved to be too much. My interest in the exiled poet's work is based off my curiosity of how poetic justice, or rather punishment alla Dante, influences other works.

Weeks 2 or 3- Ovid I: It's clear enough that I have a train of thought when it comes to these units. Since I haven't had the chance to study many Latin authors, I'd like to expand my understanding of Dante's Inferno. The specific section from Dante's Inferno that comes to mind is the punishment of the thieves, which Dante bases off of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

No comments:

Post a Comment