(3 credits)
This course will focus on two goals: building a working knowledge of selections of Geoffrey
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (CT) and developing an understanding of Middle English
culture and language through our reading of the texts. Through a close reading of CT, the
textual, cultural and political issues important to Chaucer will become more clear. This class is
not simply about learning about the writings and ideas of one man who died almost 600 years
ago; rather, this course is designed to reinforce your critical skills of understanding ideas andculture through representative (and not so representative) texts.