Short course
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: Text and Context
Course status:
Applications being accepted
Dates:
15/04/2027 - 17/06/2027
Study format:
In-person weekly
Fees:
£315.00
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is the poet's last major work and can be seen as a culmination of his poetic art. We shall read selections from the Tales in the late fourteenth-century context in which they were written, considering aspects of Chaucer's experimental narration, poetics, and his engagement with contemporary French and Italian literature. Beyond this, we shall look at Chaucer's readership during his lifetime; how and why this changed over the following centuries. The figure of Chaucer himself in popular consciousness also undergoes a number of shifts. Chaucer would not necessarily recognise his nineteenth century self.
The course will encourage a close reading of the texts, with the help of modern English translations, and discussion of Chaucer's techniques. This will be balanced with a more general exposition of literary and cultural shifts over the centuries in order to explore the reasons why the story collection continues to be relevant.
Book this course
Book your place online using the button below.
Programme details
Courses starts Thursday 15 April 2027
Week 0: Course Orientation
Week 1: Chaucer in context and the ‘prologues’ to the Canterbury Tales
Week 2: The Knight’s Tale and The Miller’s Tale
Week 3: The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
Week 4: The Tale of Sir Thopas
Week 5: The Pardoner’s Tale
Week 6: The Manciple’s Tale
Week 7: Chaucer and Caxton
Week 8: Chaucer and the Tudors
Week 9: Chaucer in the Nineteenth Century
Week 10: Chaucer’s ‘congeniality’: face-to-face with Chaucer in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
Teaching methods
Teaching methods will consist of exposition accompanied by slides integrated with student participation through the reading and discussion of prepared passages of text. Paper handouts with readings will be circulated in advance of each week’s class.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course students will be expected to:
- read and analyse the selected texts in terms of their meanings;
- think about the cultural and literary development of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales;
- understand the continuing significance of the Canterbury Tales.
Assessment methods
Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation, in advance of the course start date, can submit coursework/assignments for assessment.
Assessment
You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first of 500 words is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome but preparing for it, and the feedback you are given, will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.
You will be set various pieces of work for the course. The first of 500 words is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome but preparing for it, and the feedback you are given, will help you prepare for your assessed pieces of work totalling 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.
Level and demands
The Department’s Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, ie first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.
Course aims
This course aims to enable participants to develop an understanding of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales within its cultural and literary contexts, and to explore its enduring significance from the late fourteenth century to the nineteenth century.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will have been given the opportunity to:
- read and analyse the chosen texts in translation, with reference to the original Middle English
- explore the literary, cultural and historical context of The Canterbury Tales and evaluate the reasons for the continuing significance of the collection
- examine the changing response to Chaucer and his work from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries
Location: Ewert House Ewert Place, Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 7DD
Programme details
Courses starts Thursday 15 April 2027
Week 0: Course Orientation
Week 1: Chaucer in context and the ‘prologues’ to the Canterbury Tales
Week 2: The Knight’s Tale and The Miller’s Tale
Week 3: The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
Week 4: The Tale of Sir Thopas
Week 5: The Pardoner’s Tale
Week 6: The Manciple’s Tale
Week 7: Chaucer and Caxton
Week 8: Chaucer and the Tudors
Week 9: Chaucer in the Nineteenth Century
Week 10: Chaucer’s ‘congeniality’: face-to-face with Chaucer in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
Teaching methods
Teaching methods will consist of exposition accompanied by slides integrated with student participation through the reading and discussion of prepared passages of text. Paper handouts with readings will be circulated in advance of each week’s class.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course students will be expected to:
- read and analyse the selected texts in terms of their meanings;
- think about the cultural and literary development of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales;
- understand the continuing significance of the Canterbury Tales.
Assessment methods
Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation, in advance of the course start date, can submit coursework/assignments for assessment.
Assessment
You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first of 500 words is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome but preparing for it, and the feedback you are given, will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.
You will be set various pieces of work for the course. The first of 500 words is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome but preparing for it, and the feedback you are given, will help you prepare for your assessed pieces of work totalling 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.
Programme details
Courses starts Thursday 15 April 2027
Week 0: Course Orientation
Week 1: Chaucer in context and the ‘prologues’ to the Canterbury Tales
Week 2: The Knight’s Tale and The Miller’s Tale
Week 3: The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
Week 4: The Tale of Sir Thopas
Week 5: The Pardoner’s Tale
Week 6: The Manciple’s Tale
Week 7: Chaucer and Caxton
Week 8: Chaucer and the Tudors
Week 9: Chaucer in the Nineteenth Century
Week 10: Chaucer’s ‘congeniality’: face-to-face with Chaucer in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
Teaching methods
Teaching methods will consist of exposition accompanied by slides integrated with student participation through the reading and discussion of prepared passages of text. Paper handouts with readings will be circulated in advance of each week’s class.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course students will be expected to:
- read and analyse the selected texts in terms of their meanings;
- think about the cultural and literary development of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales;
- understand the continuing significance of the Canterbury Tales.
Assessment methods
Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation, in advance of the course start date, can submit coursework/assignments for assessment.
Assessment
You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first of 500 words is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome but preparing for it, and the feedback you are given, will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.
You will be set various pieces of work for the course. The first of 500 words is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome but preparing for it, and the feedback you are given, will help you prepare for your assessed pieces of work totalling 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.
Dr Victoria Condie
Dr Victoria Condie has taught for the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education since 2000 on its award-bearing courses, public programmes and summer schools. As a medievalist by training, whose doctoral thesis looked at the way language is used in certain Old English prose sermons and verse, she is particularly aware of how writers craft language to their own persuasive ends. Currently, she is a Bye-fellow of Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge where she teaches English Literature and its Contexts 1300-1550 and Practical Criticism and Critical Practice for the Cambridge English Tripos. She is the author of chapters in Old English Medievalism: The Reception and Recreation of Old English in the 20th and 21st Centuries (2023) and New Zealand Medievalism: Reframing the Medieval (2024).
Certification
Academic credit
Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme (CATS Points)
Please note, students who do not register for assessment and accreditation during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun. If you wish to gain credit from completing this course you must register to do so before the course starts.
Only those who have registered for assessment and accreditation will be awarded CATS points for completing work to the required standard. Please note that assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail.
Learn more about the Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme.
If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education at the Department you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee for assessment and accreditation.
Digital certificate of completion
Students who are registered for assessment and accreditation and pass their final assignment will also be eligible for a digital Certificate of Completion. Information on how to access the digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course attended. You will be able to download the certificate and share it on social media if you choose to do so.
Level and demands
The Department’s Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, ie first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.
Fees
| Description | Costs |
|---|---|
| Course fee (with no assessment) | £315.00 |
| Assessment and Accreditation fee | £60.00 |
How to enrol
Please use the ‘Book now’ button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an enrolment form.
How to register for accreditation and assessment
To be able to submit coursework and to earn credit (CATS points) for this course, if you wish to do so, you will need to register and pay an additional £60 fee. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online.
Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun.
If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education at the Department you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.