English 421 - Chaucer

Professor Lauren Kiefer

English Department

Champlain Valley Hall

Professor's Home Page | Course Home | Grades | The Chaucer Metapage

REQUIRED TEXT

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: Nine Tales and the General Prologue, ed. V.A. Kolve and Glending Olson

RECOMMENDED TEXT

Rob Pope, How to Study Chaucer

COURSE GOALS

The primary aim of this class is to help you understand and enjoy Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in all their engaging variety and humor (both subtle and broad). In the process, we will think and talk among ourselves about literature and history and about the changes and continuities in Western or Anglophone culture (in our beliefs, perceptions, likes and dislikes, for example), and we will practice writing about such topics in a formal, careful, and persuasive way.

We will be reading (and quoting!) the Canterbury Tales in Middle English, much of which is like modern English written by a very bad speller. Many people find it helpful to read the text aloud, and necessary to read each text twice, at least to start with. If you continue to have trouble with Middle English after the first week or two, you may want to arrange to get help from me individually.

This page was last updated on 02/05/2004 . 

Questions about this site? Please contact Dr. Lauren Kiefer.

Header image courtesy of  The Geoffrey Chaucer Website.