Historians on Chaucer : the 'General Prologue' to the Canterbury Tales

Description

As literary scholars have long insisted, an interdisciplinary approach is vital if modern readers are to make sense of works of medieval literature. In particular, rather than reading the works of medieval authors as addressing us across the centuries about some timeless or ahistorical 'human condition', critics from a wide range of theoretical approaches have in recent years shown how the work of poets such as Chaucer constituted engagements with the power relations and social inequalities of their time. Read more... Abstract: Historians on Chaucer brings together 25 experts in the history of fourteenth-century England to discuss one of the most famous works of Middle English literature-Geoffrey Chaucer's 'General Prologue' to the Canterbury Tales-in relation to the economic change, social issues, and religious controversies of the period. Read more... Content: Preface Reading Chaucer: Literature, History and Ideology Chaucer the Poet, Chaucer the Pilgrim The Knight The Squire The Yeoman The Prioress and the Second Nun The Nun's Priest The Monk The Friar The Merchant The Clerk The Sergeant of Law The Franklin The Five Guildsmen The Cook The Shipman The Doctor of Physic The Wife of Bath The Parson The Ploughman The Miller The Manciple The Reeve The Summoner The Pardoner The Host Conclusion: Historicism and its Limits