Volume 12 Issue 3

The intense political and religious atmosphere of medieval Europe exerted great pressure on human nature, suppressing individual expression. In response, humanist thought—rooted in natural human tendencies—began to emerge under this weight. Originating in Italy and centered on the critical inheritance of classical Greek culture, the Renaissance unfolded through the medium of the arts. Boccaccio’s literary works, in particular, exhibit distinct stylistic features. His Decameron, a representative example of the frame narrative form, is imbued with the unique aesthetics of humanism and realism characteristic of the Renaissance. This aesthetic not only highlights the brilliance of human nature through its critique of the medieval Church and political authorities, but also expresses a historically specific literary style through its “text within a text” narrative structure reminiscent of One Thousand and One Nights. By blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality, this structure conveys a dual metaphor of imagery and reality, offering an interwoven and multifaceted aesthetic experience.

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