Writer as Liar

<p>Originally published in 1975 <i>The Writer as Liar </i>examines the literary game of falsehood as it is portrayed in the <i>Decameron</i>. The book examines how Boccaccio’s collection of tales has a ‘frame’ story its own built-in key to the art of story-telling its internal logic of truth and falsehood as well as its moments of self-parody pure narrative intrigue and sophisticated sexual symbolism. The book formulates the argument that Boccaccio’s story telling is seen as an artfully malicious operation depending for its success not on some abstract concept of narrative originality or the accurate depiction of human psychology but on the combinative assemblage of narrative blocks which are manipulated by a craftsman who must lie and cheat with raw material in order to produce a living work – therefore depicting the artist as a liar. </p>