Chaucer in the UIAD English Department

by Philippe With (level B2)

What a strange idea to suggest an event about Geoffrey Chaucer who was born in 1343. A couple of friends living in Oxford, that I hosted at home, wanted to share with me their passion for the Middle Ages and the famous author, Geoffrey Chaucer, known in England as the “Father of English poetry”. They spoke to me about his famous work, written before the Printing Press invention The Canterbury Tales and his characters, 29 ordinary people doing a pilgrimage and telling stories to pass the time.

I suggested to English teachers, with more or less success, a lecture in English with a bilingual PowerPoint. In the association Alliance Grenoble-Oxford, we met Jonathan Fruoco, professor of English literature when he came, few years ago, to speak about Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Jonathan Fruoco is an English teacher in Chambery and professor in Paris-Nanterre and he was very glad to speak in Grenoble (his hometown) about the Middle Ages.

But, I  thought that the topic was a bit difficult for students in English Department and I suggested a new idea, a sketch performed before the lecture. I wrote the script for four characters, G. Chaucer, a clerk, the innkeeper and the Wife of Bath. It was taken from the General Prologue when pilgrims are gathered in the Tabard inn of the innkeeper Harry Bailey. With the help of Rosana Delon, one of the English teachers and the delegates network, we found four people as actors with texts and nine extras. Different people brought costumes, like Michael who helped us very much.

After only one rehearsal, to explain the staging of the show, we presented it in a joyful mood.

It’s always a very difficult exercise for English students from different levels to understand totally a lecture in English. The room acoustics weren't very good, there was noise in the corridors and the speaker was sitting at his desk with a deep voice. But we can try to understand main ideas, helped by the bilingual PowerPoint or some groups of words or listen to the music of the English language.

And now, we can study one of the Tales. The most famous is “The Wife of Bath” in which a young knight is accused of raping a young lady of the court. The Queen spared his life with one condition, after a one year trip he will have to answer this question : What is it women desire ?

Isn’t that a very modern question ?

This lecture was organised with Alliance Grenoble-Oxford and on their website : www.grenoble-oxford.org, you can find :

_ The entire PowerPoint by Jonathan Fruoco

_ A photo gallery

_ The Youtube video of the sketch performed by 13 students