EssentialQuestions
From Wyclif
These are some frequently taught and discussed questions and issues in studying the Canterbury Tales. They are adapted from a list created by Mark Allen, professor at the University of Texas-San Antonio. He is also a bibliographer of Chaucer scholarship; links to his work can be found here.
To respond to any of these questions, hit "edit" above, place your cursor under the question you want to respond to, and type away! If you have a lot to say, type two capitalized words together to make a new link; hit "preview" and then click on that link; click on "Create New Empty Page" and keep on writing!
What is the Canterbury Tales?
What is the importance of the different manuscripts and of textual issues?
What is the significance of the tale order? Some textbooks use the order of the Ellesmere manuscript, while others adapt the "Bradshaw shift."
The tale order reveals to us the hierarchy structure in the group. When the structure is challenged someone steps in to correct it. The order also shows the prejudices felt between professions. It serves as a signal for the next teller to begin their tale. (simant)
Does it make sense to think of the Tales as an anthology or as a single story? Or is it both?
A. I think that the "Canterbury Tales" are no doubt an anthology. However, each character tells a single story that relates to the others which seemingly pulls the stories together as one story. These "Tales" could be considered both an anthology and a single story due to the nature in which Chaucer chose to write the "Tales" in. And personally, I think it is a brilliant piece of work. brb413
In what ways is the Canterbury Tales a tale-telling contest? In what ways a pilgrimage? The "Canterbury Tales" is a tall-telling contest by the stories that the tellers choose to tell. For the most part the teller is conscious of the listener and what would entertain them. The tells include lovers, sexual encounters, common fears and concerns, and religious matters. When the tell does not entertain it is concluded. It is a pilgrimage because of the mixed company present. All of which are on the same journey even thought their purpose differs. All are in search of something that is important to them: whether this is for spiritual, societal, and/or economical reasons. (simant)
Is the Canterbury Tales aboutâ¦
Order and disorder (personal, social, comic)?
Determinism and/or free will?
Gentility and pity?
Epistemology (the nature of knowledge) - that is, experience and/or authority?
Transformation and/or conversion?
How does the Canterbury Tales mean?
How does the work reinforce or confound readers' expectations?
What do we need to know about genre to read the Tales?
How important are the connections between tellers and tales?
Does reading the Tales help us understand irony? Require that we understand irony? Both?
What does it add to our reading experience to know about Chaucer's sources? Chaucer's sources show what the popular forms and subjects were in Middle England. It serves as a means to compare Chaucer's work and to see the differences. Chaucer was able to give a unique voice to many of the characters and to change the stories to suit his means. (simant)
What can we gain from studying juxtapositions of words, details, etc.? Or recursions of words, patterns, themes?
What is the difference between narrative and rhetoric? Does Chaucer alternate plot and rhetoric - and if so, to what end?
What narrative "layers" can you unearth in the stories? (Is the Canterbury Tales really "like an onion," as some professors insist?)
Where is Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales?
Can we detect or infer anything about his ideas in his creation of multiple audiences?
Did he mean to emphasize self-conscious devices or point to the artificiality of the work (metafiction)?
Does the fiction "dissolve" or fade away near the conclusion (if it is a conclusion) of the Tales?
What do you want to add about the Canterbury Tales?
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