Intro. The Canterbury Tales is one of the best loved works in the history of English literature. Written in Middle English, the story follows a group of pilgrims who are travelling the long journey from London to Canterbury Cathedral.
What type of literature are The Canterbury Tales?
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is a frame narrative, a tale in which a larger story contains, or frames, many other stories. In frame narratives, the frame story functions primarily to create a reason for someone to tell the other stories; the frame story doesn’t usually have much plot of its own.
Why is The Canterbury Tales important to English literature?
The Canterbury Tales celebrates the art of storytelling.
Chaucer understood that who is telling the story matter. Each narrator’s personality makes its way into the story he or she chooses to tell. Likewise, the stories we choose to tell and how we tell them speaks volumes about us.
What are 2 types of literature used in Canterbury Tales?
In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the author tells a humorous set of stories through prose and poetry.
How did Chaucer change English literature?
He introduced rhyme royal into English.
Chaucer chose to focus on rhyme, which was unusual for an English language poet of his time, but not completely original. However, he was probably the first person to include rhyme royal in English language literature.
What is The Canterbury Tales considered?
The Canterbury Tales (Middle English: Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer’s magnum opus.
Why is Chaucer called father of English literature?
Ever since the end of the 14th century, Chaucer has been known as the “father of English poetry,” a model of writing to be imitated by English poets. “He was one of the first poets of his day to write exclusively in English (his contemporary John Gower, for example, wrote in Latin, French, and English).
Is The Canterbury Tales hard to read?
The Canterbury Tales are in Middle English. We’re not going to lie to you – Middle English is really hard to read. At first. It takes a lot of practice, a lot of studying pronunciation guides and glossaries and reading aloud to get it.
What is the main theme of Canterbury Tales?
Social Class. One present theme throughout The Canterbury Tales is the importance of social status during Chaucer’s time. For example, the Prioress and the Parson are opposite characters in their regard for social status. The Parson is more concerned with his religious devotion than his class.
Why should I read Canterbury Tales?
The Canterbury Tales have supplied ample historical material, as well as literary influence and rollicking entertainment, by informing audiences about society during the Middle Ages—and sharing the way ordinary folk spoke and joked in the context of everyday life.
Who is Chaucer in English literature?
Geoffrey Chaucer is considered one of the first great English poets. He is the author of such works as The Parlement of Foules, Troilus and Criseyde, and The Canterbury Tales. Humorous and profound, his writings show him to be an acute observer of his time with a deft command of many literary genres.
What are the two main form of literature?
Some resources will cite only two genres: fiction and non-fiction, though many classics will argue that fiction and non-fiction can, and do, both fall under poetry, drama or prose.
What are the two major forms of literature?
Major Literary Forms
- Nonfiction prose is literature that is written in ordinary, non-metrical language and communicates facts or opinions about reality.
- Fiction prose is also written in ordinary, non-metrical language, but it is the product of the writer’s imagination.
Who is father of English literature?
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (/ˈtʃɔːsər/; c. 1340s – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the “father of English literature”, or, alternatively, the “father of English poetry”.
Who is the father of modern English literature?
William Shakespeare is considered by many to be the father of modern English Literature. It is not just his popularity and influence on modern writers that allows for this title to be attributed to him but because of the massive contributions he made to the development of the English language.
Who is the father of English novel?
Sir Walter Scott called Henry Fielding the “father of the English novel,” and the phrase still indicates Fielding’s place in the history of literature.
Why was The Canterbury Tales banned?
by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales was once banned in the United States by the U.S. Postal Service. It refused to mail copies under the Comstock Act of 1873, stating that the work contained obscene, filthy and inappropriate material.
Is The Canterbury Tales a novel or poem?
What is The Canterbury Tales about? Chaucer’s long poem follows the journey of a group of pilgrims, 31 including Chaucer himself, from the Tabard Inn in Southwark to St Thomas à Becket’s shrine at Canterbury Cathedral.
Is Canterbury Tales Old or Middle English?
Middle English
The Canterbury Tales, frame story by Geoffrey Chaucer, written in Middle English in 1387–1400.
Who is the first poet in English literature?
Caedmon
Today is the feast day of Caedmon, the first known English poet. As well as being the first named poet in the English literary tradition, he is also a significant figure in the history of people who hate singing in public, people who develop new talents later in life, and of cowherds.
Who said Chaucer father of English literature?
It was John Dryden who called Geoffrey Chaucer the ‘father of English poetry. ‘ Dryden did this in the preface of his book, Fables, Ancient and Modern, which was published in 1700.