A racial flair-up at our college has given me an opportunity to stress the relevance of the Wife of Bath’s prologue and tale. Like our African American students, she too feels disrespected. One has to dig beneath her seeming confidence to realize how vulnerable she feels, however.
The Open Syllabus project has come up with a list of the most commonly taught books in college–at least according to syllabi that are available on-line. “The Canterbury Tales” leads the list. Shakespeare, of course, is the most represented author.
The rightwing attacks on female sexuality have a long tradition, going back to Pliny the Elder, and include Chaucer, Spenser, and Milton. Expect the tradition to continue if Hillary Clinton is elected president.
Love is in the May air. As I look at the College students hand in hand, I think of the men as Chaucerian squires, the women as Tennysonian May queens.
The power of a “King Lear” passage is a refutation of Scott Walker’s attempt to redirect higher education to “work force needs.”
Suggestions that certain classics come with “trigger warnings” leads of the following reflection.
Seen in the light of the Samaritan woman at the well, Chaucer’s Wife of Bath is one of Christ’s messengers.
A recent Wall Street Journal column is attempting to revive the 1990s culture wars over literature.
Literature 10 most painful marriage proposals.
