Reading During Crisis: The Decameron
“It’s 1348, and plague has broken out in Florence” begins an episode of The Spouter-Inn podcast with Suzanne Akbari, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, and Chris Piuma that explores Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, a collection of one hundred stories told by people trying to get their minds off the disruption of the 1348 plague.
Akbari and Piuma discuss the frame tale and five of their favorite stories, enjoying how funny or sexy or strange the stories can be, and considering the work stories might do in a pandemic.