Keywords

• Between the 15th and the 16th century the novella underwent a number of interesting changes in its structure and form. The use of a narrating subject responsible for the organisation of the text
• the different form of the frame and the progressive autonomy of the stories
• now independent of their container all cooperate to the evolution of the genre. New narrative forms emerge
• such as fragmentary narratives
• complex texts almost comparable to the novel
• as well as unsystematic collections of unconnected novellas. Petrarchâ€
• ™
• s Griselda is a turning point in this process
• in that it involves a rhetorical discontinuity respèect to the model of The Decameron: the idea of the complex system is modified and there is an increased number of strategies used to express subjectivity. Furthermore
• the style of the Lettere permits a fragmentary and open narrative discourse