Malicious Compliance, or The Canterbury Tales
Course Description
Summary
According to "All Englang," Joan Acocella's essay in The New Yorker, Geoffery Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, "was the freshest, clearest, and sweetest of the great English poets." She goes on to say that, living in the 14th century, he was also perhaps the first great English poet. Still. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of Chaucer that "He is the poet of the dawn, who wrote/ The Canterbury Tales, and his old age/ Made beautiful with song; and as I read/ I hear the crowing cock, I hear the note/ Of lark and linnet, and from every page/ Rise odors of ploughed field or flowery mead." And, well, who doesn't want to hear the crowing cock or the note of lark and linnet, to experience the rising odors of ploughed field or flowery mead? Right? Who wouldn't want to dive into the work of the freshest, clearest, and sweetest of the great English poets?
Learning Outcomes
- students will read, study, and analyze the tales and poetry of The Canterbury Tales
- students will work to decipher the complexities of Middle English as compared to the early Modern of Shakespeare's time and our own contemporary English
- students will learn and examine historical and personal and social context surrounding Chaucer as he wrote his poetry