Comedy, chivalric adventure, magic, miracles, saints' lives, sermons -- Chaucer's best-known work,The Canterbury Tales , runs the gamut from sublime love poetry to slapstick fart jokes. We will study a generous selection of the major Tales, exploring Chaucer's literary sources, his style, his perspective on his own contemporary culture, and his ideas about the purpose of storytelling. Along the way, we will learn to read some Middle English and grapple with some of the questions Chaucer raises: Who defines the term great literature, anyway? What does it mean when an author writes in someone else's voice? How do a storyteller's social class and choice of genre determine the story's impact? Should literature challenge political and cultural norms? What are the uses of irony? How should texts treat women? What role does an audience have in defining the meaning of a story?
