Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

FAIN: FS-231075-15

Kent State University (Kent, OH 44242-0001)
Susanna G. Fein (Project Director: February 2015 to April 2017)

A four-week seminar for sixteen college and university teachers on Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

We propose a four-week Seminar for College Teachers on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, to be held July 18-August 13, 2016, at Kent State University. The focus of the Seminar is on careful reading of the Canterbury Tales in light of current research in Chaucer studies and medieval literary studies more generally. Writing two centuries before Shakespeare, Chaucer is one of the foundational literary voices in the English language. His subjects include science and faith, art and society, philosophy and human nature. A superb fashioner of words and ideas, he is a poet whose work rewards each new encounter. Alongside daily meetings, the Seminar will feature visits by three senior scholars and a visit to the medieval collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, hosted by the Curator of Medieval Art. The Seminar readings will encourage collegial discussion while satisfying the research, instructional, and professional interests of college teachers.