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GEOFFREY CHAUCER (ca. 1343-1400), vedi da p. 12 text bank - Coggle Diagram
GEOFFREY CHAUCER (ca. 1343-1400)
son of a wine merchant
taken prisoner during Edward III's son war in France, ransomed by the king
1370s: Italy - Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Virgil
Work:
Controller of the Customs of Wool and Hides
in the Port of London
Member of Parliament for Kent
1386: dismissed from all his offices - began to work on
The Canterbury Tales
1389: Clerk of the King's works at Westminster (Richard II - Henry IV)
first poet to be buried in the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey
THE FATHER OF THE ENGLISH LITERATURE
one of the first English poets to be known by name
his East Midlands dialect (of his native London) became
the basis of Modern English
The Canterbury Tales gave a portrait of the English society of his time
Three periods:
ITALIAN
maturity in perception and use of the metres
The House of Fame
- ca 1383
The Legende of Good Women
- ca 1385 - first attempt to use the couplet in English
The Parlement of Foules
- ca 1380 - fable
Troilus and Cryseide
- ca 1380-85 - poem adapted from Boccaccio
ENGLISH
realism
The Canterbury Tales
- ca 1387-1400
THEMES
springtime as rebirth
journey
seasonal restoration of nature
paralleled by the supernatural restoration given by the power of saint
CHARACTERS
a portrait of English society, except for
aristocracy
they would not have travelled with common people
peasants
the could not afford the expenses
Presentation:
without following the social hierarchy -
growing importance of middle class women
clothes, attitude, way of thinking, tools, qualities
EXAMPLES FROM THE GENERAL PROLOGUE:
The Prioress
- physical description, her manners while eating
2 more items...
The Merchant
- entire outfit description
3 more items...
The Wife of Bath
- Dame Alice, wife is her status
4 more items...
pilgrims's names referred to their profession - a society in which work conditioned personality and world view
INDIVIDUALISATION: the character exists because has reactions and is in movement -
dynamic vs. static
medieval characters
SETTING
London: point of departure - human and linked to wordly pleasures
Chaucer's intention was to write another cycle about the return to London, probably about illumination (from Canterbury) towards reality
Canterbury: destination - holy, the symbol of the celestial city
not reached by the pilgrims because the work remained
unfinished
Journey of the pilgrims:
allegory
of human life
STRUCTURE AND STYLE
long narrative poem
rhyming couplet
made up of
iambic pentameters
(10-syllable lines alternating unstressed and stressed syllables)
A General Prologue (characters' description) and 24 tales, usually introduced by a prologue (theme) and followed by an epilogue, with a moralising base
Interplay between real and unreal given by Chaucer's
irony
as a reporting pilgrim
PLOT
Spring, 30 people are going on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury, Kent. They meet at the Tabard Inn in London
men, women, monks, clergy people, artisans, merchants, Chaucer himself (the narrator) - feudal society, clergy and middle classes
Host's proposal: every pilgrim should tell 2 stories while going to Canterbury, and 2 coming back. Prize for the best story, penalty for anyone who gives up
in a medieval sense:
not just observation, but also exaggeration, caricature and grotesque
frame of pilgrimage to
give reality
describe the human existence as a pilgrimage to the heavenly city (religious metaphor)
FRENCH
model of French romance styles and subjects
The Romaunt of the Rose
- before 1373
The Book of the Duchess
- ca 1369
vedi da p. 12 text bank