Have you ever....lusted after your best friend's girlfriend? Been a woman in a man's world? Wondered how to divvy up a fart? Had sex in a pear tree? Wondered what women really want most? If these questions scratch an itch, then you will want to travel to the fourteenth century through the medium of the Canterbury Tales and Chaucer's shorter verse. While late medieval England is in many ways alien and unfamiliar, the desires, fears, and uncertainties we encounter in Chaucer's universe are somehow oddly familiar, and in Chaucer we see it through curiously modern, even postmodern, eyes.
We will begin with Chaucer's "Short Poems," many of which are believed to be from early in his career. We will read all of the Canterbury Tales and will supplement our reading with background information and discussion in Helen Cooper's Oxford Guides to Chaucer book on the Canterbury Tales. Frequent reference will be made to texts by Chaucer that we will not have time to read, especially The Legend of Good Women.
Graded work will consist of translation quizzes, "pilgrim journals,"
a term project, and midterm and final exams.