Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer was an English poet of the fourteenth century, best known for *The Canterbury Tales*, a collection of stories told by pilgrims traveling to Thomas Becket's shrine.
His work helped establish English as a literary language when French and Latin dominated.
Often called the father of English literature: We're reading Chaucer in my medieval lit class.
Medieval English story collection
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- feudalismLand-for-service social structure
- knighthoodHonorary title of nobility
- chivalryKnightly code of honor
courtly love · manor · guilds · manuscript · parchment · scribe · Middle Ages · Plantagenet
Medieval English story collection
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- satireMockery exposing vice
- ironyMeaning opposite to words
- characterizationDescribing distinctive qualities
Language between 1100-1500
- vernacularEveryday regional speech
- etymologyWord origin study
- Anglo-NormanHybrid medieval French-English culture
- dialectRegional language variety
prose · translation · French influence · Italian influence · Boccaccio · Petrarch · standardization · loanwords
Metered poetic passage
- coupletTwo successive verse lines
- stanzaPoem's line grouping
- meterDevice that measures usage
- iambic pentameterUnstressed-stressed pattern, five feet
allegory · heroic couplet · ballade · envoy · refrain · prosody
Established important texts
- influencePower to affect others
- SpenserTudor allegorical poet
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
- precursorSomething that comes first
pioneer · innovator · Chaucerian · Westminster Abbey · literary tradition · English poetry · national poet · literary history
Canterbury Tales
Medieval English story collection
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- feudalismLand-for-service social structure
- knighthoodHonorary title of nobility
chivalry · courtly love · manor · guilds · manuscript · parchment · scribe · Middle Ages · Plantagenet · fourteenth century
Canterbury Tales
Medieval English story collection
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- satireMockery exposing vice
- ironyMeaning opposite to words
characterization · morality tale · storytelling · social commentary · humor
Middle English
Language between 1100-1500
- vernacularEveryday regional speech
- etymologyWord origin study
- Anglo-NormanHybrid medieval French-English culture
dialect · prose · translation · French influence · Italian influence · Boccaccio · Petrarch · standardization · loanwords · neologism
verse
Metered poetic passage
iambic pentameter · allegory · heroic couplet · ballade · envoy · refrain · prosody
literary canon
Established important texts
- influencePower to affect others
- SpenserTudor allegorical poet
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
precursor · pioneer · innovator · Chaucerian · Westminster Abbey · literary tradition · English poetry · national poet · literary history · printing
- Medieval WritersJulian of Norwich, medieval chronicles
- British LiteratureShakespeare, Dickens, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Austen
- Literary AuthorsC.S. Lewis, Dostoevsky, J.R.R. Tolkien, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde
- British AuthorsCharles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Roald Dahl
- Chaucer's WorldCanterbury Tales, Middle English, medieval England, 14th century, pilgrimage
- medieval literatureBeowulf, Song of Roland, Canterbury Tales, El Cid, chivalric romance
Geoffrey Chaucercontemporary authors
Living creators of literature