Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

(5 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This module is devoted entirely to one of the most influential and enduring works in the literary canon, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Imagined as a storytelling competition between a fictional band of pilgrims, Chaucer's unfinished masterpiece conjures an extraordinary cast of characters whose distinct voices fill this 'human comedy' with a rich array of contrasting literary genres and forms. Characterised by relentless energy and tension, the collection moves from courtly romance to bawdy comedy, from savage satire to delicate religious sentiment, from the miracles of saints to the antics of barnyard animals. Chaucer's ambitious work is the crowning achievement of a writer long celebrated as the father of English poetry.