Chaucer
This study of Chaucer will emphasize the Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde in order to explore medieval ideas about authorship, social unrest, reform and heresy, gender, and “otherness.”
Course Documents
Spring 2012 Syllabus
Close readings
Here is a pdf of the guidelines for your close readings.
The complete set of close reading passages, as a pdf.
See my Late Medieval Literature page for links to METRO, MED, and other general ME resources.
eChaucer - A repository of texts, translations, and other tools for the study of Chaucer in the digital age.
Baragona's Literary Resources includes links to recordings of many of Chaucer's works, performed by scholars of medieval literature.
Harvard Geoffrey Chaucer Website - includes self-tutorial section, as well as a number of online resources.
Images, Spoofs, and Other Gems
Images from the Ellesmere Manuscript, containing Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
Images from the Hengwrt Manuscript, which also contains the Tales and was copied by Adam Pinkhurst.
One of the most famous images of supposed host desecrations is from this series, painted by Paolo Uccello for an altar predella in Urbino between 1465 and 1469. Click "next" in the upper right to see the rest of the series, including this image of blood from the tortured host running under the door and alerting Christians outside the house. You can also see an image (if you scroll down) of the host bleeding when stabbed, proving that it is, indeed, the body of Christ.
Those interested in the House of Fame may find this image of the Rota Fortunae (Wheel of Fortune) worth looking at.
Best tweet on the Tales? From @LeVostreGC: "Hey girle, Ich shal make sure that Hengwrt and Ellesmere differ, so that thou shalt be the onlye authoritee on the order of the tales." Manuscript Studies humor perhaps has a limited audience.
Bill Bailey spoofs Chaucer's English for a pub gag
Did you know that a musical based on the Canterbury Tales premiered in 1968? Listen to samples here! I particularly draw your attention to the echoes of "Auld Lang Syne" in "Pilgrim Riding Music."
How quickly could you summarize all of the Tales? Nathan Hamer does it in one minute.