Rinaldo D'Asti: Drama of the <em>Signifié</em>

Abstract

Rinaldo D'Asti: Drama of the Signi fie P. GARY CESTARO The issues of narration and, by cxtension, languagc stand at the very Decameron. The author's own preoccupation with narrative and manipulation of language are everywhere the uses of heart of Boccaccio's manifest; within the narrative frame, the art of storyteUing stant concern to the brigata characters wrangle with is of Con- and countless are the novellas in which ineptness. One problems of speech and are victims of linguistic need only think of the first tale of day six as dose to a structural center of this Umana Commedia rejects the as we are Hkely to define in which madonna Oretta let stammering requests to be this tale, is down off his borse. The curious is cavaliere and metaphor created in by which horsebackriding, or trave!, equated to storyteUing, structurally and spiritually centrai to the world of the Decameron and pervades Boccaccio's entire work. Furthermore the act of travelling ( camminando ) ical is often presented in the Decameron as a metaphor- analysis tales are reduction of the act of living tale this will be evident in my of the of Rinaldo d'Asti (II, ii); in this way, Boccaccio's informed by the fundamental parallels, quasi identification, life between movement and speech, history and narrative, is and language. Boccaccio as That language for the chief distinguishing trait of humanity and the direct expression of human ratio is a concept as valid for Dante. Boccaccio's use of the verb ragionare for to narrate