2016 - 2017

0626-2283-01
  Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales                                                                        
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
Jonathan StavskyGilman-humanities281Mon1400-1600 Sem  1
Gilman-humanities281Mon1400-1600 Sem  1
 
 
University credit hours:  4.0

Course description

Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales                                                                          צ'וסר: סיפורי קנטרברי

Advanced Course                                                                                                              קורס בחירה

Dr. Jonathan Stavsky                                                                                                 ד"ר יונתן סטבסקי

Gradually composed during the last two decades of the fourteenth century, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is among the most important collections of verse narratives ever written. It is a work that continually probes the very nature of storytelling and representation while tackling issues as diverse as the mutability of fortune, the status of women and the relations between husband and wife, religious piety and hypocrisy, social conflict, and much more besides. Its thematic variety is matched by an equal wealth of forms, many of which were—and still remain—highly experimental.

This course will aim to read the Canterbury Tales from cover to cover, together with selected critical essays demonstrating the major approaches that scholars have brought to bear on this work. No prior knowledge of Chaucer’s language is required. However, all texts will be studied in the original. By the second half of the semester, you are expected to become proficient in the grammar, core vocabulary, and pronunciation of the London dialect of Middle English, the basis of Early Modern English. Students who successfully complete the requirements of the course should be able to analyze, contextualize, theorize, and savor Chaucer’s poetry. They will also be qualified to pursue advanced seminars on this and other medieval authors.

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