This program will explore the "General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales". This poem is perhaps the best known and most important work of English poetry of the Middle Ages.
APRIL IS POETRY MONTH.
* Use this link to join our virtual program: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87873936860
Geoffrey Chaucer is one of our grandest and most enduring poets; an architect of our vocabulary and our literary style.
The "General Prologue" is the first part of "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer. It introduces the frame story, in which a group of pilgrims travelling to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury agree to take part in a storytelling competition.
Pr. Lerer will look at how Chaucer makes vivid literary portraits out of social observation and literary allusion. He will also raise questions about what it means to read Chaucer today, in the light of recent scholarly and public conversations about Chaucer's representation of men and women, sex and power, war and peace.
Presenter: Pr. Seth Lerer joined the Literature Department at the University of California San Diego, in January 2009 as Distinguished Professor and as Dean of Arts and Humanities. His teaching and research address Medieval and Renaissance Literature, the History of the English Language, Children’s Literature, and the history of the book. Most recently, he has been working on Shakespeare. He is the author of "The Life and Writings of Geoffrey Chaucer."
At the conclusion of the program please feel free to take a brief online survey here:
https://www.projectoutcome.org/responses/67100
* Virtual programs work best with the current version of the browsers listed below: