ENGL 5114 Medieval Lit: Chaucer

Fall Semester 2003

Course Info

Class e-mail list: 5114@wiz.cath.vt.edu

While the fourteenth century was different from our own time and in many ways alien, foreign, unfamiliar, and strange, we will nevertheless find much that is familiar, and we will see it all through eyes that seem curiously modern, even postmodern.

We will consider the nature of the medieval text, the contingent circumstances of its composition, production, dissemination, and reception. We will struggle, always, usually vainly, to locate the "voice of Chaucer" within the ironic universe of his creations. Chaucer's exploration of the nature of language--of the crucial roles of context, intention, and contingency in the construction of meaning--will be a primary focus of our reading and discussion.