This course is designed to introduce you both to a number of Chaucer’s works, spanning the length and breadth of his career, and to a number of ways of reading them. For a contemporary reader, the works of Geoffrey Chaucer can feel rather distant and arcane; belonging to a world that feels far from relevant, and written in a language which seems unfamiliar, even confusing. This course will dispel these anxieties, and show you that Chaucer’s rich, complex, often frustrating, artful writing has much to offer the contemporary reader and critic. All introductory reading will be in Modern English, but in our seminars, we’ll look at the texts alongside the Middle English originals. As we work together to become familiar with the language of 14th-century England, we’ll also think about the inevitable questions of modernisation and translation that underlie the modern texts we’ve encountered.
The course will be split into five, themed seminars: man and animal; love and sex; fame and afterlives; history and mythology, and dreams and books. The reading for these texts will touch upon many of Chaucer’s most intriguing works, from the comic beast-fable of the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, to the unfinished, fantastic vision of the House of Fame. There’ll be much discussion of Chaucer’s most famous work, the Canterbury Tales, but we’ll also think about some of the lesser-known works, like the Complaint of Venus, and the shorter poems. We’ll also consider how Chaucer has been read by his contemporaries, successors, and critics over the centuries. You’ll finish the week with a firm foothold in Chaucer’s writing, but hopefully, with a hunger to know more.
Learning outcomes
- To read and become familiar with a variety of Chaucer’s writings;
- To develop critical insights through discussion in seminars, and close reading;
- To improve knowledge and comprehension of Middle English.
