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Geoffrey Chaucer’s story collection The Canterbury Tales, told by a crowd of pilgrims of different outlooks and from diverse levels of society, spreads across a wide spectrum of genre, theme, tone, and narration. In this seminar, we will study the Tales in their fourteenth-century literary, cultural, political, religious and social contexts. Drawing upon a variety of critical scholarship, we will pay particular attention to gender and genre, to courtly love and marriage, and to the nature of storytelling. You do not have to be an expert in Middle English in order to participate in this seminar. However, you will be asked to read portions of the text in Middle English. Prior to the first session, please read the “General Prologue” to the Canterbury Tales (in Modern English or, if you can, in Middle English) and start reading the following tales (the earlier the better!): Knight’s Tale, Miller’s Tale, Franklin’s Tale, Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale Please buy the following editions of the Canterbury Tales: The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry D. Benson et al. (Oxford 1988) [paperback]. Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, translated into Modern English by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Books, 1958). |
