Title: Boccaccio's <em>Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine</em> and literary dissociation: to allegorize or not to allegorize?
Abstract:BOCCACCIO ^S COMEDIA DELLE NINFE FIORENTINE AND LITERARY DISSOCI ATION: TO ALLEGORIZE OR NOT TO ALLEGORI2E?* LUISA DEL GIUDICE fiorentine (also referred to as the body of criticism on the Comedia dell...BOCCACCIO ^S COMEDIA DELLE NINFE FIORENTINE AND LITERARY DISSOCI ATION: TO ALLEGORIZE OR NOT TO ALLEGORI2E?* LUISA DEL GIUDICE fiorentine (also referred to as the body of criticism on the Comedia delle ninfe Ameto or the Ninfale d'Ameto) has generally focused on two areas: it has traced the narrative technique of the 'cornice /novelle' back to the quistioni d'amore of the Filocolo and forward to the Decameron; it has also interested itself in unraveling the puzzles regarding the nymphs' identities, which Boc- caccio, the gossip columnist, so deverly concealed in this 'roman a clef'.' Sansovino has labelled this work a quasi 'piccolo Decameron '^ The relatively limited while Di Pino has considered this the first pastoral of Italian narrative. The engaging question however, that a critic faces in dealing with this Comedia concerns the conceptual tramework in which this pastoral functions. The work is puUed in two directions; toward the real, dic- tated by the senses, and toward the allegorical, dictated by reason. The spiritual aspirations embodied in this Christian allegory seem to be at odds with the narrative realism, and, while the character of is Ameto spiritually elevated and integrated into the allegory, the I- narrator remains betrays the the tension bound by the earthly vision and therefore partially final allegory. The warring halves are not reconciled and is not resolved. The dissociation between narrator, who at This paper was read the 2nd annual American Association of University Pro- fessors of Italian conference held in Los Angeles from November 20-22,Read More