It’s no accident that writers from William Shakespeare to Zadie Smith have taken inspiration from Chaucer. For one thing, he invented the very idea of a literary career in English. This course traces that ceaselessly innovative career from beginning to end, starting with the dream poems – a meditation on grief, an ascent into orbit, and an avian debate – before turning to The Canterbury Tales. This collection aims to capture its entire society and all its literary genres in a single raucous storytelling contest. But Chaucer’s poetry is living literature, still capable of teaching writers today some new tricks.
