Reading Chaucer - AAALA034AE

• Title: Reading Chaucer
• Guaranteed by: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Actual: from 2025 to 2025
• Semester: winter
• Points: 0
• E-Credits: 5
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:0/2, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / unknown (5)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Is provided by: AAALA034A
• Additional information: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=5410
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: Mgr. Helena Znojemská, Ph.D.
• Class: Exchange - 09.2 General and Comparative Literature

Annotation

N.B.:
THIS CODE WAS CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR ERASMUS STUDENTS who need a grade for this course.
The course is only open to DALC incoming Erasmus students.

OBJECTIVES
The course is meant to provide a comprehensive introduction into the study of Chaucer's writings. The issues in
focus will be Chaucer's engagement with the literary tradition; narrative strategies and Chaucer's narrator persona
(s); "earnest and game" - humour, irony, parody and their uses. The course also proposes to map Chaucer's poetic
career in presenting selections of his earlier works alongside his best known piece, The Canterbury Tales, tracing
developments as well as continuities in the predominant concerns in Chaucer's texts.

MATERIAL
Primary texts:
▪ selection of lyrics
▪ Parliament of Foules
▪ The Canterbury Tales:
General Prologue
Wife of Bath's Prologue
The Merchant's Tale
The Franklin's Tale
selections from The Tale of Sir Thopas, The Tale of Melibee, The Nuns' Priest's Tale
Primary texts will be provided in original with glosses and in translation for convenience, but a willingness to look
beyond the translation to the original is requisite for a fair treatment and discussion of the texts.

Secondary texts:
A selection of critical reading will be posted in Moodle.

Recommended reading:
Brown, P., ed. (2000) A Companion to Chaucer, Oxford: Blackwell
Cooper, H. (1989) The Canterbury Tales. Oxford Guides to Chaucer, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Edwards, R.R. (1989) The Dream of Chaucer: Representation and Reflection in the Early Narratives, Durham:
Duke University
Hansen, T.E. (1992) Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender, Berkeley: University of California Press
Mann, J. (1973) Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Patterson, L. (1991) Chaucer and the Subject of History, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press

PROCEDURE
The seminar will combine Moodle forum with class sessions.
The forum is designed to serve as a preparation for the class discussion. Students will take turns introducing the
respective texts to their colleagues through a brief personalized summary – describing the interpretative problems
they have encountered in reading. There will also be questions for discussion posted in the forum, which the
students should consider and respond to briefly (picking one problem and commenting on it in the space of 1-2
sentences). Finally, students are encouraged to add their own questions to the forum.
The class session will expand on this initial embryonic debate, allowing all participants to interrogate, compare
and combine their individual insights and conclusions.
Further details will be discussed during the first introductory session.

DETAILED PROGRAMME: see attached file

ASSESSMENT
Students are expected to give one oral presentation and submit a paper of 1,000 words for a credit. An essay of
5,000 words should be submitted as a graded paper. Active participation is of the essence. Deadlines: seminar
paper 31/8/2026, graded paper 31/8/2027. Later submissions will not be accepted.

Last update: Znojemská Helena, Mgr., Ph.D. (18.09.2025)