ENGL 301 - Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

FC ARHU WINT

4 credits
Twenty-nine pilgrims set off down the road to Canterbury. To pass the time, they devise a storytelling contest. This is The Canterbury Tales: both a great compilation of medieval genres–from chivalric romance to raunchy comedy to beast fable–and a sustained exploration of how stories work and what they do in the world. It is about pleasure and interpretation, authority and rebellion, sex, chickens, and the meaning of life. There is a reason people have been reading it for 600 years. Students will learn to read Middle English, which is hard but fun.