Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London, his father a merchant, but his ambitious parents dispatched him to be a page boy in an aristocratic household, and for most of his life he served the king as a civil servant.
A Briton by birth, Wallace has been teaching at Penn since In March, he began a year-long term as president of the Medieval Academy of America, a leading scholarly group in the field. Just what was Middle English, and how can we hope to understand it? English literature, for Chaucer, was something close to a tabula rasa.
What was his role establishing the contours of the language and literature to come? Was he aware that he was launching something like a national culture? Chaucer looked to Italy and to the great poetry of Dante; he thought that English might, eventually, achieve something comparable. But the English he inherited fell far short of such lofty aspirations. He first imagines himself as a makere , or maker of verses, like a good artisan or craftsman, rather than as a poet —a word associated with Latin poetria.
You mention that Chaucer recited his poetry before audiences. To what extent did he regard his work as an oral art form, and what role did having an audience play in its evolution? Chaucer was writing a century before the invention of printing in the West , and hand-copied manuscripts were expensive.
He thus anticipated that one person would read the tale aloud, and others would listen. He builds elements of redundancy and repetition into his poem—so if you miss a bit you can still follow the tale.
He is continuously aware of his audience; he is highly performative. Students in all my classes become great readers-aloud of Chaucer. Chaucer was a government official, a diplomat, a parliamentarian. What effect did his public life have on him as a writer?
The Alexandrians of the 1st century bc further developed Greek grammar in order to preserve the purity of the language. There is no official government agency in the United States that makes rules for the English language. In fact, the United States does not even have an official language. Teachers usually rely on tradition and popular style guides to decide what proper grammar is. They carefully monitor which words people use most often and how they use them. The word is of Hebrew origin it is found in the 30th chapter of Exodus.
Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Setting off from a London inn, the innkeeper suggests that during the journey each pilgrim should tell two tales to help pass the time.
The best storyteller, he says, will be rewarded with a free supper on his return. Chaucer introduces us to a vivid cast of characters, including a carpenter, a cook, a knight, a monk, a prioress, a haberdasher, a dyer, a clerk, a merchant and a very bawdy miller. These characters come from all corners of 14th century society, and give Chaucer the chance to speak in many different voices.
Some of the characters' tales are humorous, rude and naughty, while others are moral and reflective. One of the reasons Chaucer is so important is that he made the decision to write in English and not French. Dr Laura Ashe of Worcester College, Oxford, discusses her current research and proposes why we should still study Chaucer. Series: Challenging the Canon. People: Laura Ashe Ilana Lassman. Keywords: key stage 5 greatwriters Canterbury Tales Medieval Literature literature chaucer english teaching lesson.
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