文档介绍：Selected Readings in British Literature
Unit 1
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
(1343-1400)
the Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400)
II. Geoffrey Chaucer
Literary career
The French period (The Book of the Duchess)
The Italian period (Troilus and Criseyde)
The mature period (The Canterbury Tales)
diplomat, soldier, scholar, Controller of the Customs, Justice of the Peace and Knight of the Shire (Member of Parliament).
the father of English poetry
born in a middle class family, son of a well-to-do wine merchant.
Life of Chaucer
Canterbury Tales
A rich, tapestry of medieval social bining elements of all classes, from nobles to workers, from priests and nuns to drunkards and thieves.
When The Canterbury Tales were written:
Christianity was the dominant social force throughout western Europe, including England.
The Feudal System was the way of life in Medieval times and if you failed to follow it you could be killed for treason.
If you worked hard enough and did enough good deeds you could advance in the system but it was mon to advance past a knight or noble
Middle Ages: General Timeline
476 .
Fall of Rome
1066 .
Norman invasion of Britain
1095-.
Crusades
1306-1321 Dante’s edy
1386 .
Chaucer begins writing Canterbury Tales
1455 .
Printing Press
Beowulf
Composed
sometime
between
850 .
900 .
1453
Fall of Byzantine Empire with invasion of Ottoman Turks
306 .
es to power in Eastern Roman Empire; beginning of Byzantine Empire
1347 Bubonic Plague
450 .
Anglo-Saxons invade England
1375-1400 Sir Gawain & Green Knight
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales