The Ethical Dimension of the 'Decameron'

Marilyn Migiel returns to Giovanni Boccaccio’s masterpiece, this time to focus on the dialogue about ethical choices that the Decameron creates with us and that we, as individuals and as groups, create with the Decameron.

Marilyn Migiel is a professor of Romance Studies at Cornell University.

‘Professor Jim Miller of the University of Saskatchewan pulls back the curtain on the historical blame game. Residential Schools and Reconciliation documents Ottawa’s handling of Aboriginal issues. This is not ancient history. It just happened.’

Stella Mattioli:

‘I would recommend the research of Marilyn Migiel to all academics (and non-academics) that might be interested not only in profound research into the Decameron, but also to anyone who wants to challenge their own idea of ethics, and what they think ethics are.’

S. Botterill:

‘Original, concise, and singularly readable, this book comes as an attractive complement to Migiel’s now classic A Rhetoric of the Decameron…. Highly recommended.’

Myriam Ruthenberg, Department of Languages, Linguistics, and Comparative Literature, Florida Atlantic University:
“The Ethical Dimension of the Decameron asks important questions. It does not preach a particular viewpoint, but, instead, questions the imposition thereof; it challenges the reader to look beyond the surface, much like the text at its core.”

Janet Smarr, Department of Theatre and Dance, University of California, San Diego:
“A new and insightful contribution to Decameron studies, The Ethical Dimension of the Decameron calls for us to read with more precision and to come to an acceptance of ambiguities instead of eliding or resolving them.”