Volume 12, Issue 2 (2024)                   CLRJ 2024, 12(2): 129-157 | Back to browse issues page

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Bu-Ali Sina University , mhosseini.@basu.ac.ir
Abstract:   (251 Views)
Thematic Similarity or Influence Study: Sa'di and Boccaccio
The study of thematic similarities and influence of authors on each other is necessary because it helps us to understand their works much better. This paper, through the prism of comparative folklore, deals with thematic similarities between a poem from Sa’di and a story from Boccaccio, and answers the following questions: Can we consider the thematic similarity between Sa’di’s “The Arab Horse” and Boccaccio’s “The Falcon of Federigo” as an example of similarity or influence studies? Can it be regarded as an example of “International Tales”? Is it possible that they have a common source? Because of the historical-geographical closeness and the nexus of transmission (such as the Crusades, medieval Spain, or trade with the Levantine countries) Sa’di’s “The Arab Horse” and Boccaccio’s “The Falcon of Federigo”, unlike thematic similarities, can be regarded as an example of influence studies. Also, it cannot be regarded a kind of direct adaptation. In addition, Boccaccio’s familiarity with Sa’di’s poem, and even Ufi’s anecdote, is impossible. The two stories, possibly, are two different narratives of a “tale type” because they share great similarities in themes and the order of the events, so they may have one common source. In all possibilities, an original Arab oral or written narrative of the story went to Europe by Crusaders or through the Latin, as a lingua franca, and finally influenced Boccaccio.
 
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