The world of Chaucer

Whichever part of The Canterbury Tales you may be studying for A Level English, you will discover helpful information about the world Chaucer inhabited and for which he wrote, at www.crossref-it.info.

A recent addition to the site is The world of Chaucer. It provides answers to intriguing queries like why death seems to play on people’s minds. It helps explain the weekly routine of medieval life. If you need to make sense of the expectations of women in the era, you can read about courtly love and women’s economic status.

Although there were significant shifts in society as a result of the Black Death, one of the key concerns in medieval society was keeping harmonious social order. This was founded on the idea of there existed a ‘chain of being’ which predetermined a person’s ‘position’ in life. This ‘chain’ started with God at the top, as the creator of all life, and ended with stones at the bottom. Take a look at The world of Chaucer > Making sense of the intangible world > The chain of being for more info.

Within human society, deference was to be paid to those in authority because it was believed that they had been raised to that position by God, who had ultimate authority. Each person’s status, or ‘degree’, needed to be recognised. Those who rose ‘above their station’ were regarded with unease.

We might baulk at such a concept today, but the actual economic and social difference between the wealthy and the poor was far narrower in medieval times than the extreme gap between the rich and poorest in most western societies which exists today.

Things ain’t wot they used to be

Change is something we’re used to. Our grandparents’ experience of being a teenager was probably very different to what it is like today. Life as reflected by Hollyoaks is a world away from the radio programmes, books and magazines they read.

The A Level syllabus you are studying has built into it a concern that students really grasp how texts are the product of their times. But how much do you really need to know to make sense of an author’s output?

• It helps to find out what were the key events of the era
• The tangible world of transport and technological advances, political change and social upheaval affected how people survived
• The intangible world of philosophy, faith and ideas shaped people’s expectations about life – expectations shared by both author and reader
• The existing literary world influenced how any text was received by its original and subsequent audiences

www.crossref-it.info has focussed on all these areas to help students get the most out of literature created in other eras. You don’t need to spend too long reading the material before it starts to make ‘difficult’ works seem much more accessible.

Some things don’t change

So some things are very different. What does not change however, is what writers throughout the ages have chosen as their subject matter: human nature. Love and anguish, greed and fear, the desire for power and protection – English Literature is full of human struggles we can identify with whatever times we live in.

Change in life and language

It seems like 21st century life is already quite different to 20th century life. Who, in the 1990’s, would have recognised any of the following:

Tweets and twitters that have little to do with birds
9 and 11 that have more significance than being 3² and a prime number
A bluetooth unseen by any dentist

These terms don’t just illustrate that our language is shifting at a mighty fast rate, but that our lifestyle and worldview is too.

Getting to grips with the past

If all this has happened just in the last ten years, imagine the changes compared to a 100 years ago (the era of Thomas Hardy, writing in Modern English), 400 years (Shakespeare, using Early Modern English) or even 640 years previously (Geoffrey Chaucer, a Middle English author)! The further back you go, the greater the cultural differences are.

Thank goodness for sites like www.crossref-it.info.

Halloween just got serious

The celebration of all things spooky has just passed and for many it is seen as ‘a bit of harmless fun’. Certainly the shops have enjoyed their vastly increased profits as people dip into their bank balances for ever more grotesque rubber masks and spangly witches outfits!

But there are those who take it very seriously – either in opposition to the dark arts or in support of them. For the latter, there is the allure of hidden power over others, whilst those against are alarmed by the influence of the occult and the manipulation that it implies.

An enduring tale

Through the centuries the myth of ultimate power gained by a bargain with the devil has worked powerfully on the human imagination. The most spectacular account in English Literature is that penned by Christopher Marlowe, a contemporary of Shakespeare.

Dr Faustus is appearing on a number of A level English exam syllabuses this year. It is a potent story of the ascendancy of a young student’s search for ultimate knowledge, which ends in horror. The opportunity to see this drama on stage makes the tale even more dynamic.

See it now!

Marlowe’s text was written for a public convinced of the reality of angels and demons, reflecting the contemporary Christian worldview. To help students get to grips with the play, and explain all the allusions, www.crossref-it.info is preparing a guide on it which will appear next term.

However, there is the chance to see a powerful and very accessible version this November and (probably) again in 2010. Visit www.saltminetrust.org.uk for details.

Your view of Halloween will never be the same again ...

Aiming to do English at university?

You made it!

Congratulations to those of you whose results enabled you to make it on to your chosen degree course! Now you have had time to recover from Freshers’ Week, we hope you are enjoying your studies.

If you find yourself plunging into the mysteries of Piers Plowman or the medieval pageant plays, with the benefit of hindsight, you can now appreciate how helpful it was if you were lucky enough to encounter Middle English at A Level.

You want to make it!

However, if you are taking A’s right now, and struggling through Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales for the first time, it might not seem that way! Middle English takes a bit of getting used to. Plurals and possessives are different and the spelling of words can be pretty fluid.

Actually, one of the best things to do when faced with a page of Middle English text is simply to read it aloud – it often makes the meaning clearer and you can start to get a sense of the humour and energy in much of Chaucer’s writing.

Help is on hand so you can succeed

The keen eyed among you will have spotted that www.crossref-it.info has got a new Chaucer text online – The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale. It is full of notes and background info to help you get to grips with a text which was as scabrous in its time as The Thick of It is today. Chaucer paints a wicked portrait of his narrator, whose corruption puts modern political scandals in the shade. Yet at the same time we are able to appreciate his audacity and persuasive sales ‘patter’.

It may be in Middle English, but this medieval tale has a contemporary punch!