Abstract
The purpose of this essay is twofold. Through the close examination of several stories of Boccaccio's Decameron, I wish to demonstrate that literary dream sequences can be read as mises-en-abyme both on the diegetical and metatextual levels. I also wish to undo the claim according to which this particular ekphrastic device develops mainly in modern narratives. My intention is to show, on the contrary, how mises-en-abyme, and dream sequences too, belong to a long epic tradition and a large corpus of medieval texts in which notions such as the displacement of the subject and self-conscious narration, generally associated with modernity, are already being performed.
| Original language | French |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 555-568 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Neophilologus |
| Volume | 80 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| State | Published - Dec 1 1996 |
| Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Linguistics and Language
- Literature and Literary Theory