Welcome to the official page for The Construction of the Female Figure in the Decameron, a digital history project dedicated to exploring gender representation and narrative agency in Giovanni Boccaccio’s masterpiece!
The Mission
This project aims to investigate the portrayal of women in the Decameron, focusing specifically on the novellas narrated by Fiammetta. By utilizing advanced digital tools, Vittorio Marco Ceolin analyzes how female characters are constructed, their thematic significance, and their roles within the cultural context of the 14th century. His mission is to make this analysis accessible to scholars, students, and enthusiasts of literature and history.
What the author does
Through a blend of traditional literary analysis and digital humanities methodologies, this project offers:
- Transcription and Digitization: high-quality transcriptions of Fiammetta’s novellas, processed using advanced tools like Transkribus.
- Textual Analysis: identification of recurring themes, narrative patterns, and word frequencies using tools like Voyant.
- Social Network Mapping: visual representations of character relationships and gender dynamics created with Gephi.
- Geographical Mapping: interactive maps that trace the settings of the stories, generated through Knight Lab StoryMap.
These elements come together to provide new insights into Boccaccio’s portrayal of women and their narrative voices.
Why It matters
Understanding the representation of women in historical literature offers valuable insights into the societal norms and cultural frameworks of the past. By focusing on Fiammetta’s novellas in the Decameron, this project highlights the different roles women played in medieval storytelling and encourage discussions on gender and power dynamics across time.