Geoffrey chaucer, Dispense di Inglese

Scarica Geoffrey chaucer e più Dispense in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Geoffrey Chaucer 1340-1400 (?) ■ Father of English language ■ Middle class, well-educated (father was wine merchant) ■ Served at court ■ Diplomatic missions to France, Spain, Italy Pilgrim’s route. Thomas a Beckett • Thomas Becket archbishop; struggled for church’s independence with King Henry II; • 4 knights murdered him December 29, 1170, in Cathedral, spilling his brains on floor; canonized 3 years later and shrine completed in 1220 The Tales ■ work existed in fragments at Chaucer’s death ■ planned for each of 30 pilgrims to tell 2 tales/going & 2 tales/returning (120 stories in original framework) ■ we have only one story each from 24 pilgrims ■ written between 1357-1400 ■ each tale deals with one of Chaucer’s themes ■ richest portrayal of men & women in earthly scene (Dante: portrayal of life after death) ■ regularly rhyming couplets ■ Chaucer usually writes a five-stress, ten-syllable line, alternating unstressed and stressed syllables (what would later be called iambic pentameter) A Portrait of 14th century life ■ Pilgrims cover the whole range of the middle class. Groups represented are: ■ Upper class (Knight, Squire, members of the Church ); ■ Learned professions (Physician, Man of Law); ■ Landed gentry (Franklin); ■ Medieval manor people (Miller); ■ Mercantile class (Shipman, Merchant); ■ Knight Structure & Style ■ Point of View ■ Chaucer enables us to read the story without expressing any kind of moral judgment ; ■ Sources: virtually every type of medieval writing: ■ Short epics, romances, fables, exempla, lays, sermon, religious allegories; ■ Wide use of irony and humor to criticize indirectly leaving up to the reader to find reason to criticize the characters. General Prologue ■ Introduction of pilgrims ■ Reasons for pilgrimage ■ April in Southwark at Tabard Inn, owner Harry Bailey ■ Bailey suggests they pass time by taking turns telling stories; the best will win a free supper ■ Brief portraits of pilgrims ■ Chaucer’s neutral attitude towards the Pilgrim ■ The rising middle class is widely represented