Department of English

Chaucer’s grand narrative experiment, The Canterbury Tales, dares, summons, and provokes us to consider our own assumptions from a premodern perspective, the most glaring assumption being our own postmodern superiority over the past. In this course not only will we be learning to critique this assumption but we will also discover ways in which Chaucer’s narrative provides us surprising new perspectives on our present, and especially on two issues that have dominated recent news: recent news: truth, post-truth, and immigrants. It might surprise you to know that Chaucer was also concerned with who controls narrative, with the way in which truth becomes complicated by competing narratives—by fiction itself. The voices of the tales, too, have recently found a contemporary adaptation in the form of migrants’ tales—refugee tales—written by some of the most talented British writers today. We will be shuttling back and forth between contemporary re-visitations of Chaucer’s work and the medieval language and texts in which he wrote. In addition to truth and immigration, this course will delve into issues of gender, sexuality, race, and class, all issues that Chaucer incorporated into his ambitious and original work. As you learn to read and delve more deeply into Chaucer’s English, you will also learn to engage with premodern narratives in all their complexity and provocations. Requirements will include reading Chaucer in Middle English, writing two papers/projects, and taking two exams, as well as short class projects on Canvas.

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