Social Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales is a work intensely engaged with the political and social issues of its time, such as labor unrest, class mobility, clerical corruption, gender relations etc. Many, if not all, of these issues are still at the center of debate in contemporary culture, albeit in different forms. This assignment asks you to find a contemporary social or political issue that parallels a fourteenth-century issue addressed by Chaucer somewhere in the Canterbury Tales, work through a comparison between them, and decide whether Chaucer’s works contain any insights relevant to the present situation. You should read and include scholarship that allows you to write as an authority on both your fourteenth-century issue, and the contemporary situation that you see as a parallel. Avoid generalizations in both cases, such as, “In the fourteenth century, women are powerless” or “It was impossible to move between social classes in the fourteenth century.” Such blanket statements are rarely true of any time period, and are easy to disprove with specific examples. Think instead in nuanced terms that take account of, for example, how gender, class, age, or other forms of social difference might affect what can and can’t be done by a person in a given time period. The results of your comparison should be presented in the form of an argument with a thesis and evidence (in the form of close readings of Chaucer’s text, scholarly articles, and news items).

Requirements: Minimum of 5 scholarly articles Mechanics: 6 pages double-spaced, one inch margins, Times New Roman font