Chaucer’s World learning resource

An illuminated letter W showing a picture of a man

Film and PDF resources

Chaucer’s World learning resource

A gold horizontal flourish

Key Stages: Post 16

Subjects: English Literature

About these resources

These resources explore The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, with a focus on "The Wife of Bath’s Tale" and "The Merchant’s Tale".

Films

Chaucer's Book seminar
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/z7jAUZ1IQYw?rel=0

Dr Nicholas Perkins asks how understanding medieval books and the interpretation of texts in Chaucer’s time can help to deepen our reading of Chaucer’s work.

Download the Chaucer's Book discussion questions  

Chaucer's Marketplace Poetics lecture

Professor Marion Turner explores Chaucer’s tale collection genre and its social, political, and poetic contexts.

Download the Chaucer's Marketplace Poetics discussion questions  

'Massolit' lectures

The following Chaucer videos (each one from an Oxford academic) are free to watch with no login required:

  1. The Opening of the Nun’s Priest’s Tale (Prof. Marion Turner)
  2. The General Prologue and the Marketplace of Ideas (Prof. Marion Turner)
  3. The Merchant in the Merchant’s Tale (Prof. Carolyne Larrington)
  4. The Portrait of the Wife of Bath in the Wife of Bath’s Tale (Prof. Marion Turner)
  5. Multilingualism, Literacy and Books (Prof. Marion Turner)
  6. Story Patterns in Middle English Literature (Prof. Carolyne Larrington)

Reading list

A reading list of useful external resources exploring Chaucer’s language, historical context, biography and critical reception.

Download our Chaucer reading list  

Related links