gb - Englisches Seminar - Ruhr-Universität Bochum

050 635 Brenzel
An Introduction to the Canterbury Tales, 4 CP
2 st. do 10-12 GB 5/37 Nord
With its pilgrim narrators drawn from a wide range of social backgrounds Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales serve as a lively recounting of the characteristics and foibles of late
fourteenth-century people. The tales are almost universally accepted as a
commentary on late medieval society, but they are more than just a social
commentary: they are also experiments in literary theory, the form and functions of
storytelling, and ideas of subjectivity. The tales the different pilgrims tell encompass a
variety of genres and modes which include romance, fabliaux, hagiography,
exemplum, sermon, beast fable, and estates satire. They vary in style between high
and low, between poetry and prose, and use different verse forms. Moreover, they
partake in numerous discourses relevant to Chaucer’s time. The pilgrims also appear
to have different agendas; some simply wish to insult their companions or tell dirty
jokes, others want to show off their learning by re-telling ‘classics’, while still others
seem bent on educating their fellow travellers with didactic tales – all of which of
course elicits a response, be it tit-for-tat, condescending elaboration or
enlightenment, or understanding agreement. While this makes for highly entertaining
reading it also leaves little to be desired from a critical perspective: not only did
Chaucer write in almost every genre the Middle Ages knew, but it is often hard to tell
when one genre ends and another begins, as he constantly borrows features of the
one to employ it in the other. This results in multiple layers of meaning that can be
approached from numerous critical angles.
This class aims to introduce students to The Canterbury Tales in Middle English.
During the first sessions we will come to grips with the language of Chaucer’s day,
reading Middle English and getting comfortable with our primary texts. Afterwards we
will analyse specific tales and their topics, themes, and intertextual relations, which
we will approach from a variety of critical angles. All necessary material will be made
available via Blackboard.
Assessment/requirements: active participation and preparation of the necessary texts
for each week; argumentative essay of 6-8 pages.