IMC 2024: Sessions

This session has been grouped by the IMC Programming Committee from individually submitted paper proposals.

Paper a: In my paper, I intend to explore the representations of sodomy in Boccaccio’s Decameron, and consider it through the lenses of both contemporary understanding of sodomy and the arguments related to its role behind natural disasters, such as the Black Death. I will examine the text in the context of the wider history of sodomy as a scapegoat during times of crisis, while simultaneously discussing Boccaccio’s choice of narrative and his portrayal of gender roles.

I will base my paper within three stories: first and second tales of Day One, and the tenth tale of Day Five. In addition to this, I will also discuss the Proem and its portrayal of the Black Death in Florence. Boccaccio’s conversation on sodomy and its relation to the Church and its vices will therefore shine a light on the ‘sinful’ society that was ‘punished’ by the plague. Through this, I will rise (and attempt to answer) the question on the place of sodomy in the Florentine society during the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages.

Paper b: Joan Basset, an early 15th-century Occitan-Catalan poet, is known for his misogynist poems. His most famous work is the Lletovari, a satirical composition in which he proposes a cure for lovesickness and describes the wickedness of women. He also wrote two compositions in which he criticises a certain lady for not fulfilling his amorous wishes. The aim of this paper is to unravel the anti-female clichés of these three poems in the context of medieval European misogyny of the 14th and 15th centuries, to compare them with other works in the same tradition, and finally to trace Basset’s fame as a misogynist poet.