In six class meetings, we will read together several complete selections from Chaucer’s famous and foundational tales by the pilgrims en route to the shrine of the martyr St. Thomas à Beckett at gorgeous Canterbury Cathedral. In the initial class, we will review the programming “Prologue”. In the five subsequent classes, we will cover a tale a week:  the staid and stuffy "Knight’s Tale", the bawdy and bodacious "Miller’s Tale", the mocking and monstrous "Reeve’s Tale”, the teasing and testing "Wife of Bath's Tale”, and the dour and disturbing "Prioress’ Tale”.

Along our own route, students will also be lightly introduced to some of the linguistic mechanics of Chaucer’s Middle English and aspects of life in Medieval England.

The course will also feature occasional excerpts from modern adaptations of Chaucer’s wondrous tales, including the 1944 experimental film [A Canterbury Tale], Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1972 film of the Tales, Garrison Keillor’s 1986 reading of the “Prologue" in the original Middle English, and the wonderfully charming and funny 2001 film, A Knight’s Tale, featuring Heath Ledger as the Knight and Paul Bettany's ludicrous and hilarious portrayal of Chaucer himself.