Genre Study The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer

Target I can identify Chaucer’s use of genre

What is genre? What is your definition of genre? Definition: refers to the specific category in a general topic. Example: Jazz and heavy metal are genres of music. In literature, poetry, fiction, tall tales, etc. are all genres.

Genres in The Canterbury Tales Poetry Fictional Narrative

Poetry in The Canterbury Tales The poetry style Chaucer uses in The Canterbury Tales is the heroic couplet couplet: two lines in poetry two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter Follows specific rhyme scheme

What is Iambic Pentameter Lines=ten syllables Uses an unstressed, stressed pattern *Shakespeare used iambic pentameter in his sonnets! Example: Think of a hearbeat. Da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM “When April with his showers sweet with fruit The drought of March has pierced unto the root” Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

Rhyme Scheme in Heroic Couplets Follows consistent pattern of a,a,b,b Example: “When April with his showers sweet with fruit The drought of March has pierced unto the root And bathed each vein with liquor that has power To generate therein and sire the flower;” Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

Narrative in The Canterbury Tales Narrative and Frame Story/Narrative Narrative: Tells a story or conveys the experience of one or more characters in the story Example: Each pilgrim’s individual tale is a short narrative. Told by pilgrims Frame Story: A narrative within a narrative Example: The telling of the pilgrims journey to the shrine of St. Thomas of Becket. Told by narrator

What a Frame Story looks like…Frame Story InI Narrator’s Prologue Pilgrims’ Tales Introduction to setting & characters