Foubert-1
Bastille Foubert
College English
Mr. Olaf Kirsten
November 16, 2017
Canterbury Tales: Annotated Bibliography
Chaucer’s Life
Biography-Geoffrey Chaucer. England in Literature. Ed. John Pfordescher, Gladys V. Veidemauis, Helen McDonnell. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman, and Company, 1991. 10-48.
The author gives a succinct but thorough summary of Chaucer’s life. Specific dates of events and happenings in his life are documented, and details about his personal and professional life are given. Chaucer was born into a wealthy family and was able to earn a good education because of that. He also worked as a page in the household of the wife of Prince Lionel. Chaucer traveled to France and Italy as an esquire to the King, where he learned of the classical authors Dante and Petrarch and their works. The Canterbury Tales was Chaucer’s masterpiece that he didn’t get a chance to finish before his death in 1400. This source is very relevant, and gives a good amount of details without being so packed with information that it becomes hard to retain it all. It provides a good general summary of his life.
Literary Criticism
Roney, Lois. “‘Abuse of the Innocents’ as a theme in The Canterbury Tales: Doringen as instance”. Rev. of The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. Papers in Medieval Studies. 1999. www.yorku.ca/inpar/inpar001_roney.pdf. Accessed 2 November 2016.
This essay exemplifies the role of women in the medieval time period. Women were not educated, and were not able to reason things out because of this. The author tells about a specific woman, Doringen, and how she was unable to fight the injustices that are being put upon her because she didn’t know how. It is explained that although women may have known that something was immoral or wrong; there was nothing they could do about it because it was dishonorable to do anything that wasn’t exactly what their husbands said, although these husbands could do whatever they wanted. This woman Doringen, was obviously able to figure out that what was going on around her was immoral, however, she could not begin to contradict any of the men involved, because that wasn’t her place. This essay was very informational and helpful. The content was extremely relevant to the topic.
Medieval Time Period
Background-The Medieval Period 1066-1500. England in Literature. Ed. John Pfordescher, Gladys V. Veidemauis, Helen McDonnell. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman, and Company, 1991. 10-48.
The basic ideas of the medieval time period are given in brief in this introduction. The background information is broken down into five main sections; an introduction, Norman England, England Under the Plantagenets, Elsewhere in the World, and The Wars of the Roses. The introduction gives information about the royalty of the time, such as King Aethelred of England, his song Edward, and the Norman Court. This section also tells of the struggles of who was to reign after Edward’s death when he didn’t have an heir. The Norman England section talks about the changes made under the rule of William (previously Duke of Normandy). He carried out surveys and buildt the Tower of London. England became involved in the First Crusade in 1095, and as early as 1117 there is mention of a school in Oxford. The section on England Under the Plantagenets tells that Henry II took the throne in 1154. He wanted to subdue the lords of England and Normandy because he felt they had become too powerful under the previous reign. Henry’s leading priest was murdered by four of Henry’s knights without his knowledge, and this caused huge amounts of raucous in his reign. The Elsewhere in the World section simply speaks of the things happening in Spain, Italy and Germany during this time period. The section on The Wars of the Roses talks about the bloody 35 year struggle between the family lines of Lancaster and York. This was called the Wars of the Roses because their family crests were a red rose and a white rose respectively. This source is a concise summary of the important events of the period. It can be used as a general introduction to the Medieval Period.
Themes
“Themes in the Canterbury Tales”. Owl Eyes. 2016. www.owleyes.org/text/canterbury-tales/analysis/themes. Accessed 28 October 2016.
This site explains the theme of courtly love in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in brief. Courtly love is described as more of an ideal, rather than something in real life or real marriage. It is thought of as a spiritual guide to finding love. The idea of courtly love says that when a man is in love he is unable to eat or sleep and therefore he undergoes physical changes, courtly love is a torment to men. References are used to aid the explanation of the theme and the general text is very helpful. This source provides an adequate basic analysis of several themes.
Writing Style
“Chaucer-Language, Style, Meter”. Geoffrey Chaucer. 2003. Nov. 1, 2008. chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/chaucer-language-style-metre. Accessed 4 October 2016.
This source focuses on Chaucer’s life and the influences that different people had on him. It says that during his time in Italy in 1372-1373 Chaucer learned to use the vulgar English rather than the court French of that time period from examples of Dante. This site also says that Chaucer’s writing techniques were not strictly French, but were also mixed with some Italian because of the time he spend in there. The information given is very clear, however, it is not strictly about Chaucer’s writing style, it is partially a history of his life as well.
Chaucer was a writer during the medieval time period who also did work for people in higher power throughout his life. He was generally well off, and received a good education. The writing styles and themes of Chaucer’s writing show what that time period was like because he writes things that were realistic to that time period, and also focuses on themes that were important to the medieval people. The themes provide lessons for our present day society by showing how important morality is. These themes were important back then, and should still be valued today because they are universal lessons for all of man kind. This is an excellent source that has extensive analysis of various aspects of Chaucer’s writing style. It provides valuable information from credible professors to help the reader come to a complete understanding of Chaucer’s work.