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LEXINGTON Tales assignment

Work in Progress. . .

RoucHDRAFI DuP:|tj FINALDRAFT DUE: 14

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Write a story in the style/spirit of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The story should be short (at least three and no more than five pages) and should work as a Chaucer story works.

The story should address some cultural phenomenon of life here in Lexington. The story should have characters that one might find in Lexington. (I do not want a"story about a stranger who comes to town for this assignment.) The story should contain very close physical descriptions of place and character. The story should echo the kinds of dialogue, description, rhyme scheme (rhyming couplets) and satire Chaucer employs-Remember Chaucer's wide-eyed, naive Pilgrim who is objective and innocent. That way the satire speaks for itself and there is wit as opposed to pettiness. The story should make a statement about a (modern) cultural issue as Chaucer does-i.e. marriage, courtly love, chivalry, role of women, sin, etc. The story should be from one of the GENRES you have been exposed to. (See attached)

Our Lexington Pilgrims are on a Pilgrimage to:

to:

in order

REQUIRED (three pieces

a Prologue, the story

itself & an afterword.)

TOTAL: I40 pts.

Prologue: You must have a prologue to your story wherein you describe your Pilgrim physicallymuch like you did with your Pilgrim Poem. The difference here is that you are choosing a'character' from the LHS community and will be making a social commentary about some aspect of the school or

20

town.

20

GRAMMAR/STYLE/LANGUAGE

You have written in the style of Chaucer by using some of the devices above along with those from class
discussion.

You have aVoided passive voice and purposeless repetition of subject unless you are trying to emulate something in a particular story or cause your reader to question the validity of your claim (i.e. 'worthy gentleman')
20 AFTERWORD You will write a brief paragraph or two analyzing what you did. You will pull significant quotafions from your piece to comment on and connect to Chaucer explicitly.

40

STRUCTUREOFTHESTORY

You have thought about "how" your story works. Though perhaps not purely traditional, your story has some sense of starting somewhere and going somewhere else. If you switch points of view, you have done so with deliberation. Anything you think I may not understand (slang, a particular choice or spelling, etc.) you will employ explanatory foot notes.

DESCRIPIION OFPLACEAND CHARACTERS You have written crisp, clear descriptions of people and place with good adjective and noun choice. You have not overdone the language to be more poetic. You have made it clear as to whether we should admire or loathe the characters. You reference physical description-along with what they are wearing a la Chaucer-using the medieval mind-set (USE THOSE HANDOUTS I GAVE YOU!) even though ii is a modern-day interpretation. You place the characters clearly in a social hierarchy.

40

DISCLAIMERS: -I have never done this assignment before and we as a FAMILY will have to work together to fine-tune it. -If you choose to write about a fellow pilgrim, please be sure that pilgrim knows and can retaliate if need
be.

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Examples of Genres in The Canterbury Tales Fabliau Five of the tales thatthe pilgrims tell are fabliaux. The fabliau was a short verse tale with

coarse humor and earthy, realistic, and sometimes obscene descriptions that present an episode in the life of contemporary middle- and lower-class people. The fabliau uses satire and cynicism, along with vulgar comedy, to mock one or several of its characters. Not infrequently, the ridiculed chuacter is a jealous husband, a wayward wife,abtaggart, a lover, a proud or greedy tradesman, a doltish peasant, or a lusfful or greedy clergyman. Plot develop*"rt oft"r, dipends on a prank, a pun, a mistaken identity, or an incident inrrolving the characters in intrigue. The fabliau was popular in France from 1 100 to 1300, then went out of fashion. Chaucer ievived the format in Tlte canterbury Tales to write "The Miller's Tale," "The Reeve's Tale,,, ..The cook,s Tale," "The Shipman's Tale," and The Summoner's Tale." It is not entirely clear whether the fabliau was a pastime of the upper classes as a means to ridicule their social inferiors or of the middle and lower classes as a means to poke fun at themselves.

Chivalric Romance (or Courtly Love) "The Knight's Tale" is an example of a chivalric romance, or a tale of courtly love. In such tales, the knights exhibit nobility, courage, and respect for their ladies fair, and the ladies exhibit elegance, modesty, and fidelity. Although knights and ladies may fall passionately in love, they eschew immoral behavior. In conflicts between good and evil, justice prevails.
Exemplum
"The Pardoner's Tale" is an example of an exemplum (plural, exempla),a short nauative in verse or prose that teaches a moral lesson or reinforces a doctrine or religious belief. Other tales can be regarded as exempla or contain elements of the exemplum in that they present examples of right or wrong living that teach moral precepts.

Arthurian Romance "The Wife of Bath's Tale" is an example of an Arthurian romance ,atype of work in which a knight in the age of the legendary King Arthur goes on a quest.
Beast Fable "The Nun's Priest's TaIe" is an example of a beast fable, a short story in verse or prose in which animals are the main characters. They exhibit human qualities, and their activities underscore a

universal truth.
Satire

A-satire is

a literary work or technique that affacks or pokes fun at vices and imperfections. Many of the prologues and tales contain satire that ridicules people who exhibit hypocrisy, greed, false humility, stupidity, self-importance, and other flaws.

Burlesque
or technique that mocks a person, a place, a thing, or an idea by using wit, irony, hyperbole, sarcasm, and/or understatement. For eiample, a burlesque may turn a supposedly respected person-such as old John in "The Miller's TaIe"-into a buffoon. A hallmark of burlesque is its thoroughgoing exaggeration, often to the point of the absurd.

A burlesque is a literary work

Low Comedy A type of comedy that is generally physical rather than verbal, relying on slapstick and horseplay as in "The Miller's TaIe." Low comedy usualry focuses on ordinary folk.

Bretonlay

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"The Franklin's Tale" is an example of aBreton lay, a Fourteenth Century English narative poem in rhyme about courtly love that contains elements of the supernatural. The English borrowed the Breton-lay format from the French. A lay is a medieval narative poem originally intended to be sung. Bretonis an adjective describing anyone or anything from Brittany, France'

Allegory An allegory is

a literary work or technique that mcribes secondary or symbolic meaning to characters, events, objects, and ideas, as in "The Nun's Priest's Tale." The pilgrimsr journey to Canterbury may also be regarded as an allegory in that it can be viewed as a representation of the

journey through life or the journey toward the ultimate destination, heaven.