Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
Class Information
Instructor: Waters, Claire
Time: TR 10:30-11:50
GE Areas: Writing Experience
Description
Chaucer's last major work is also his most famous, for its lively variety of voices and characters, its humor, its range of genres and literary styles. We will read a substantial selection of the Tales in their original Middle English, thinking about how the Canterbury Tales reflect on the literary traditions Chaucer inherited and the social world of late fourteenth-century England. We will also read modern critical takes on Chaucer and his works as well as a handful of responses to and reworkings of them by contemporary writers.
Grading
Section attendance and participation: 10%
In-class and online written exercises: 10%
Quizzes: 10%
Two short close-reading exercises (800?1000 words): 20%
Midterm: 10%
Abstract of a critical article: 5%
Final research paper (about 2400 words): 20%
Final exam: 15%
Texts
Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer; David Lawton (ed)