Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
European Languages and Societies Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in European Languages and Societies
Sins, Sex, And Secrets: The Legacy Of Confession From The Decameron To The Heptaméron, Nora Martin Peterson
Sins, Sex, And Secrets: The Legacy Of Confession From The Decameron To The Heptaméron, Nora Martin Peterson
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Faculty Publications
A quick digital search for the term ‘confession’ in Boccaccio’s Decameron yields 75 results (Decameron Web). Confession in Boccacio’s text is conspicuously present and, I argue, not coincidental: it highlights the increased attention to the sacrament after the Fourth Lateran Council made annual confession mandatory in 1215. Decameron 1.1 depicts a false confession performed by a wicked man on his deathbed. His confessor follows the protocol of confession manuals, which began to appear in increasing number following 1215, but his interpretive skills do not extend beyond the questions he is bound by protocol to ask. In Boccaccio’s world, …
What Women Know: The Power Of Savoir In Marguerite De Navarre’S Heptaméron, Nora Martin Peterson
What Women Know: The Power Of Savoir In Marguerite De Navarre’S Heptaméron, Nora Martin Peterson
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Faculty Publications
The verbs savoir and connaître appear in central moments in the Heptaméron. Knowledge—as it appears in the frame narrative and in the novellas—can be a way for men and women to debate, among many other things, the relationship between the sexes. When women use this word, or when they demonstrate that they know something, it creates the space to participate – not always unambiguously – in otherwise male-dominated conversations. How Marguerite writes about the acquisition, possession, fragmentation, or loss of knowledge, underscores her interest in exploring the role of women in communities of knowledge.