Medieval Literature: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Capstone eligible)

Cross listed with MDVL_REN 4105-03 and 7105-04

How are stories affected by the identities of their tellers?  How do the stories we tell help shape community or nation? Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is one of the great masterpieces of global literature, a rollicking collection of stories that captures the diversity and complexity of 14th-century England while continuing to entertain readers today. It serves as an introduction to a broad range of medieval literature, revealing the surprising variety of genres and forms in the period, from raunchy fabliaux, to courtly romances, to the theological lessons of saints' lives, with each of the tales told from the perspective of a person from a different social position. We will study the tales in relation to social and religious politics, and investigate such topics as the construction of race, individuality, chivalry, fin amor ("courtly love"), gender and sexuality, and forms of spirituality. The class will be framed by 21st century global reworking of the tales and consider the question of why the Tales are so often retold today.