The General Prologue: context links

Helpful material on:

Biographical background of Chaucer

• The world of Chaucer 1330 – 1400
  
  • Timeline
  • Biographical background
    
    • The Chaucer family
    • Chaucer’s early years
    • The effect of Chaucer’s background
    • Chaucer’s court career

Social / political context of Chaucer

• The world of Chaucer 1330 – 1400
  
  • Key events
    
    • The Black Death
    • Social and political unrest – the Peasants’ Revolt
    • John Wyclif and challenges to the Church
  • Making sense of the tangible world
    
    • Common aspects of medieval society
    • The relationship between Church and society
    • Death in society and culture
    • The power of the monarch
    • Astronomy and astrology
    • Pilgrims and pilgrimage

Religious / philosophical context of Chaucer

• The world of Chaucer 1330 - 1400
  
  • Making sense of the intangible world
    
    • Ideas shaped by the church
    • Medieval beliefs about sin and forgiveness
    • Death and mutability
    • The chain of being
    • Attitudes to women in medieval writing
    • The courtly love ethic

Understanding poetry

• How poetry works
  
  • Scansion
    
    • Syllables and stress
    • Metrical feet
    • Regular metre
    • Rhythm

Literary context of Chaucer

• The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale
  
  • Literary context
    
    • Other writers from Chaucer’s time
    • The audiences for which Chaucer wrote
    • Chaucer’s English
    • Chaucer’s metre: iambic pentameter
  • Narrative – framing devices in The Pardoner’s Tale
    
    • The General Prologue
    • The narrative function of the Host (Representations of the author figure, The interjections of the Host
    • Prologues

Further study on Chaucer

• The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale
  
  • Resources and further reading
    
    • Websites
    • Further reading
  • Critical approaches to The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale
    
    • Early twentieth century approaches to literature
    • Approaches in the last thirty years
• Tips for successful study
  
  • How to…
    
    • Plan an essay
    • Approach passage based questions
    • Write a good English exam answer
      
      
      
      
       

 

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