English 101 RC3 Dillard

This video covers the life of English author, poet, philosopher, courtier, and diplomat Geoffrey Chaucer to middle age. Chaucer's 14th-century saw him survive the Black Death as a child, the plague that wiped out a third of the population of Europe, and become actively involved, both as a soldier and later as a secret agent, in the 100 Years' War—a war that was to leave England devastated. Despite these man-made and natural catastrophes, English literature went through a short Renaissance, and the program hints as to why this might have happened while considering the leading role that Chaucer was to play in it. Terry Jones (Monty Python) stars.

Link out to literary criticism on Chaucer's General Prologue from Gale's Literary Sources.

Link out to literary criticism on The General Prologue from EBSCOs Literary Reference Center Plus.

Link out to literary criticism from EBSCO on Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale.

Link out to literary criticism from Gale on The Wife of Bath's Tale.

In this fabled classic 14th-century romantic poem, Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, takes up the Green Knight's challenge to strike him with an axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Sir Gawain accepts and cleaves off the Green Knight's head expecting him to die, but the Green Knight picks up his head and reminds Gawain to meet him in a year and a day, which he does—and the adventure is only just beginning. This video takes a look at the poem as well as the people and places behind the prose, visiting actual places described and exploring the legend.