In medieval Italy and early modern China, novellas flourished and circulated amidst expanding markets and readerships, alongside profound shifts in ethical systems, social orders, and religious institutions. Whether written in a newly forged vernacular or in plain classical language, these novellas illuminate the complex cultural dynamics and intertextual tapestries underpinning narratives of romantic couples, adulterous and exemplary wives, and the destabilizing presence of domestic slaves of foreign origin within the household.
In “Economy of Slavery and Literary Influences in Decameron V 7,” Beatrice Arduini examines the interplay of literary rewritings and historical influences by focusing on the novella’s depiction of a young male slave who becomes a loyal member of his master’s home, of the circumstances of his manumission, and of the unraveling of the family dynamics once the forbidden love between the former slave and the master’s daughter is discovered. As Arduini shows, the story may be read as a reworking of the classical tradition from Virgil’s Aeneid to Ovid’s Heroides, as well as an intriguing document about the presence of domestic slaves as a threat in Christian households.
Angela Porcarelli takes another Boccaccian novella as the focus of her discussion in “‘Thou Shalt Not’: Adultery and Confession in Decameron VII 5.” In this tale of a jealous husband who disguises himself as a priest only to end up unwittingly facilitating his wife’s affair, Porcarelli shows how Boccaccio employs a complex network of intertextual references and the trope of false confession to question power dynamics and gender norms within the family. The trope of confession, in particular, parodies a practice which had become a powerful tool deployed by the Catholic church to promote and enforce a set of values, with the priest acting as an intermediary between the penitent and God. In the story, the husband disguised as priest becomes instead an intermediary—or a “galeotto,” to borrow the Decameron’s “surname”—between his wife and her lover.
In “Tormented Wives and Family Reunion: Griselda and Her Chinese Sisters” Maria Franca Sibau engages in a comparative exploration of virtuous and suffering wives in Decameron X 10 and two late Ming vernacular Chinese stories. As Sibau argues, these tales explore the nature and limits of exemplarity and its attending rewards (always in the form of a family reunion) in troubling ways. The tribulations of patient Griselda, Zong Erniang, and Bai Yuniang may be discussed not only as so many exercises in the narrativization of unflinching wifely devotion, but also as explorations of the epistemological problem of the knowability of virtue, through both narrative and commentary.
Xiaoqiao Ling’s paper “Sixteenth-Century Chinese Erotic Novellas: Medium Literacy and the Forming of Families” takes a fresh approach to a body of texts usually regarded as a genre defined by extended courtship before the consummation of marriage, ultimately reinforcing the structure of a (polygamous) Confucian household. These novellas interweave a rich tapestry of poetry, song lyrics, letters, treatises, parallel prose, and other literary forms alongside their romantic narratives. As Ling shows, it is the exchange of poetry, letters, and gifts that drives the romantic plot in these tales by fostering a sense of medium literacy. Exchanged objects and their interpretation invoke idiosyncratic references to the established canonical tradition, engaging a complex hermeneutic field that shapes key moments in the story.
Bringing together literary scholars from four different research institutions, this panel fosters an exchange between specialists in medieval Italian and late imperial Chinese literatures. By integrating diverse perspectives and scholarly expertise, we aim to spark new discussions and inspire future research on Eurasian literary traditions.