Hi, I'd like to welcome everyone
to the class notes on reading The Canterbury Tales in context
so this week I'll go over
some specific context that I hope will help people
as they navigate through the sections of the Canterbury Tales that we're reading
and then from there I'll say just a few words about how to think about
the reading from this week and the reading for every week for the course
in terms of some larger contexts of what the course is trying to accomplish
So I'm going to go ahead and get started.
There are some special challenges with reading The Canterbury Tales
you'll see here in the notes that I've abbreviated that to TCT
just for simplicity sake and one thing that I've tried to do here
is bold any key
literary terms, especially the kind of thing that might come up again in a
midterm or
on final exam. So with that said
one thing that I recommend to everyone is
that you should all spend extra time reading marginal definitions and
footnotes
This is something that I went over in last week's class notes but this
week in particular and I think really for the next few weeks
we'll see this come up with Othello
when we read Shakespeare for example. But this week in particular
I think
present a lot of challenges and really makes for some very slow reading
It takes me a long time to read through the Canterbury Tales
just with trying to read through the marginal definitions, the footnotes,
trying to figure what's happening line-by-line, stanza-by-stanza
There's kind of a lot to process there and so you're really going to want to
give yourself time to do that.
The text is just loaded with both kinds of information
marginal definitions footnotes, and so you should find
a system that works for you so for instance when I read something like
like the Canterbury Tales I just get used to looking in the right hand margin
at the end of every line
watching for in reading footnotes as I encounter them. I really actually find
myself really great differently than I do.
Even for last week, for Beowulf, that had some of
this but not really nearly
as much. I would I would sort of glance ahead at times to see,
"Oh great, I've got five lines coming up with no
marginal definitions and no footnotes," and I knew I could just read through that
and try to make sense of it on my own.
It takes a little getting used to because when you we look at that stuff
especially the footnotes where your eye
has to move down the whole page, it can can pull you out of
the flow of making sense of the reading itself
so it takes with me a little while and I except it takes everyone a little while
just to get used to that and moving back and forth.
If you find a better system works for you then go for it.
You know there are sometimes when I'll just say you know what I'll only look at
that material if
I'm really confused and I won't look at all of it or
I might stop at the end of every sentence or every stanza and look back over the
material to help me out.
So find a system that works for you, that helps you
kind of read, get into some kind of reading flow also
while also understanding what you're reading. Another thing that you should focus on doing,
just like last week but here even more so perhaps
last week would be with Beowulf we had a modern translation so we didn't really have to
deal with
in that case it would have been Old English and all the strange nuances of spelling and
and vocabulary that that we would have encountered
had we read the Old English version. Here we are reading
a translated version in the sense that
some of the spelling's been modernized there are there have been some editorial
changes made
but it's much closer to Middle English
than it is to modern English and so there's a lot of weird spelling in there.
So when I would recommend doing is reading out loud,
sounding out words your head perhaps
help you become accustomed to the unusual spelling of Middle English.
in pages 19-25 of our textbook
there's some help with this where the editors basically explain
how in Middle English different
letter combinations actually are
make different sounds than what we're used to as modern readers. I don't find
that very useful
because I just can't remember that
what you know I look at the material but it's hard for me to keep in
mind while I'm actually looking at
the primary text. I just kind of make my way through and try sound it out on my own and
oftentimes by saying it out loud
even if the spelling is different than what we're accustomed to, if you say
it out loud
you can kind of hear the modern word
in the Middle English word and you can get to the right place. An example here
is just the first four lines of the poem
So what I have underneath that is a translation that includes
any of the definitions of words that were given in the marginal notes or the footnotes.
I changed those around and I just modernized the spelling even more
so the translation I came up with was
This is still a word-by-word rendering, and when you first encounter it,
it still is going to take a little bit to ask, okay, what's actually being
described here
because the sentence structure is very strange. It's not a straightforward
sentence
and we're going to encounter that a lot the Canterbury Tales
so if I were to take this to a next level translation, like try to put it into
just simple straightforward English, I might
translate this as something like
"When April brings its fresh showers,
to freshen the roots that have been dried out
from the drought of March and the plants have sucked up all of this rain,
that's what gives flowers their life and energy."
That's a little awkwardly done because I
did it line-by-line, but
the sense there is that these flowers are sucking in
the rain that's falling in April, so the most important thing here really is the idea
that, hey,
it's spring, and flowers are blooming. That's what's being said there.
But you need to kind of work through all those different levels of understanding
and you know when I'm reading I'm not doing what I'm talking out loud right now
I'm not doing this in full detail. A lot of it's happening
just in my head as I'm reading along. As I'm reading I'm thinking about what's
going on, I'm trying to,
I'm reading out loud. I'm making sure I just understand the basic gist of what's going
on
and then in my head, I'm trying to make sense, and say, okay, it must be spring time because these
these are the months,
this is what's being described.
In addition to just contending with the spelling issues and the sentence structure
at the end of every stanza clarify for yourself what was the point
of that stanza, what happened in it or what was described
Remember that you can identify stanza breaks
anytime that there is an indented line which indicates the start of a new
stanza
much like the start of a new paragraph in prose writing. Note that some poetry will
sometimes use a line break or gap between lines
to indicate a stanza break
Now that ends that stanza
previously for many lines, I just took the last few lines out of it
then you can see the indent right there
here's our indent, that means we're onto a new stanza
often a stanza break indicates a shift in subject a shift in focus
a shift in tone perhaps but nonetheless
and then it goes on from there. I just wan to be clear that's
what we're referring to.
Stanzas can be anything from a line to
many many lines, dozens, hundreds, depending on the poem or the poet.
In The Canterbury Tales a lot of stanzas tend to be
I guess
anywhere between 15 and 30-40 lines, something like that
Some of them get a little bit long, but they are being used intentionally.
Like in the prologue a lot of times
each stanza focuses on one character for instance
so what's nice is that those stanza breaks give you a visual cue to pause,
ask yourself, okay, what just happened in that previous stanza.
The remainder of what I have in these notes
are intended to help you read Canterbury Tales within the context of the time
period
and of other course content. When it comes to reading the general prologue, basically I
assigned the general prologue
and then The Miller's Tale. For the general prologue
keep in mind the basic frame narrative is very simple
a range of characters across all social classes in occupations
are journeying on a pilgrimage to a holy site
so a frame narrative is a story
that serves as the mean narrated in which other stories are embedded were
told
so here in but Canterbury Tales
for instance the premarital is the story of the travelers
core meeting at the beginning in going to Canterbury so that come with the
means to ru
in the stories we tell each other as the trouble
are situated in or embedded in a larger free merited
says they are telling them as the trial but the story to journey with the means
through
so free to bring art it is like that you think about as a framework agreement
photograph her need it frames the other stories
so the story I'm the freemen air tonight is
but introduced in the general prologue begins adding in
were all the characters are staying with a host who decides that the most all
cover stories the past I murder
so in the same way now and we going along Karcher
we play games right listen to music it wasn't in
the radio you know we might tell each other stories to read it aloud to each
other whenever
whatever we're doing to pass the time though says he must pass the time a
current stories
and this is a quote from rate from the general prologue
no sense that Egypt you too short with our way
in this biatch Chuck telling tales 20
to can cover
in its own homework you should tell another two ventures
that will with them all in other words he saying hey
on the way there everyone tales to tales
on the way back to camp from Canterbury to London everyone tells
two more tales two towns to more details
that one twister again so was the hosts idea
it will be the competition was Utah's best story up the host
that accompanies them on the pilgrimage to King to look for long is intended as
an introduction
to all the characters it is meant to be humorous
so I'm hoping that is you reading your point some parts are and ensuring funny
somehow sort of me laugh out loud funny sometimes more
arm ironical satirical com
but but is often at the expense in pointing out some kind of hypocrisy
involving the character in the typing ewbal Road society that they represent
sees you to water the characters their is I'm
sort through things going on where we're being given the sort portrait Beach
character
arm in miniature giving wanted details about them
but at the same time so for those details on some things the character
does
seem to be at odds with who they're supposed to be
or third job in and that's intentional so so pay special attention to what's
happening
i sry the introduction to the following questions
were kinda details but various characters to strasser a
regular attention to you you know one thing that's very obvious he talks a lot
about what people are wearing
so notice that ask yourself why is he paying too much attention that's why
does it matter so much
what close the app what concludes the havoc and jackets with materials
y si Q its how does each of his descriptions and two years into the
character
and how he wants is to you hammer so it's going to the big over-arching
question what you're asking
as you read the general really get to know them
the miller's tale
on again enters the plugs actually
pretty basic got three men John Nicholson Absalon
we meet various points the narrative are fighting over one woman I wasn't for her
actions so when you really the miller's tale I want you to pay attention
tell each before main characters are portrayed house trance you representing
do you think were meant to root for anyone character
work your butt any character comes out on top what might be the consequences
for socially
given the implications of this story it what it suggests about communities in
about the relationships between men
various classes in between those minimum
women this case the woman be trying to that
and so looking also keep in mind here is that this camp is cool
in response to the next year now we did with the next year but I'd
sign you read the very short summary opening staying on as you read where
that makes your is a throwback to know should balance
romanians in chivalry in I'm
you know hot so high-minded values misses a very different kind
story so that back contrast there's really important to keep in mind
read I'm in the introductory materials
about chaucer in about the Canterbury Tales you learn something about
because the images are being done to Canterbury but really important context
your cynicism
you know it is a religious wage I'm
to PR managed to get to it to go to the shrine
to pray on you know of the people we go on these brokerages to you
%um are you know because we had to reboot
a goal in mind maybe to how bout with someone that was second reminds
or themselves that was sick or two Cooper pray for
better fortune home or you know for any number of things in all the things that
even today that we are still might hope increase 49
on the upper left corner here you'll see that included just a
a little Mapple the the way that he would have gone on
on home if you go on Google Maps kinda cool you can
you can just track out their journey
and I think when you put it if you do buy food at the gate I think Google Maps
it was something between
something around 16 17 18 hours walking
I'm so I miss those kind according to jeanette
we can you can do that and people still going on a journey now you know
partly the pilgrimage now is about retracing this literary text not so much
with just wage
arm but anyway don't here's a picture above
I'm Canterbury cathedral itself over here we are
team is PT may have some of the programs and then if you follow this link
it's pretty cool because it's so much to her mind about the Canterbury Tales
as I'm sure to have your going to discover cleaved by all means
put that up in on discussion board under the
for a minute created to be able to share a minor
me online resources be fine but this one is I was really cool because
it gives you but your virtual tour Canterbury Cathedral secret is poppin
their
can look around and see you know what was so inspirational
people want their on
so the last thing I wanna talk about here is just how you're thinking about
each week's readings in relationship to you the readings and come before the
readings that are to be coming up
so each week in addition to focusing on the readings for the week
in using any preparatory an introductory materials
to help you appreciate and understand the week's primary tax
you should also be thinking about how this week's readings we made to the
previous week 3
so maybe no at the back of your mind me when you're done reading after
discussion board
post you might be thinking about that sometimes the questions that I ask
in discussion board might help you to think about making some of those
connections but
always you know if you see those those interesting connections there arm
make note of those whether your commenting on them in discussion board
or just
writing about them in your notebook this is also the kind of thing and I'm really
going to emphasizing the
midterm
exams so want to meet virtues of course light
we're taking is that by covering such a long stretch literary history
in such a short time frame were able to see connections across time across
literary tax but we could pay attention to how for instance
Baywalk in the Canterbury Tales might have a reason overlap
and also ways in which the diverge how you might ask
to both want homes represent the ties that bind communities
people together so hear something to you manana track
also mister monger now until very
peeves about community what defines a community what bonds
you make people together what forces were calling them a car
who gets left other community words intentionally kept
on the country's a fucking national identity is another major theme
how to various kinds of communities you might within the sense of national
identity
especially as we begin reading Shakespeare in the writers who come
after
and we'll see we get the Shakespeare beyond we respected get this
idea a English miss in in Bruges in israel coalescing
coming to shred for peeves above core values were
work or values do various characters in a letter
literary works in the church how did the values have different characters come
into conflict
how do those values change over time papist gender and sexuality
how you perceive biological differences in differences in sexual practice
indoor orientation shape attacks representation of its characters
and the communities that the for class
in social science what role the characters class status in society
worries occupation play with intact and now we could see her here as well
and we see similar obviously somewhat this week in the Canterbury Tales
and it was to get the shakespearian and beyond will see I'm
you know if you look at which point much more good time you can act
active role in
I'm as he jus as as characters in a raid
I'm so we could certainly put her her here as well
up to this point in our readings the his someone appropriate and that most the
characters were looking at would be walked in with
Canterbury Tales are are mostly male characters religion in ways that knowing
what does faith look like with any literary tax
with practices are rewarded which in our and what is meaning
face and then finally race and ethnicity house
otherness to find within a literary text has free spirit this is the function
in attacks help to find different communities and the Browns
this is gonna come right in the forefront when we get to a fellow so as
you post your responses on discussion board this week in going forward
push yourself to make smoothies connections between tax time periods by
asking these questions
always wondering about changes that you see across time
and across Hawkins