DANTE AND CHAUCER

Geoffrey Chaucer, “the father of English literature,” was also the first known English reader of Dante – generally regarded as the greatest poet in a modern European language – and the question of how to respond to the legacy of his powerful predecessor left its mark on many of Chaucer’s works. Was “Chaucer,” the self-identified hero of The Canterbury Tales, based on “Dante,” the poet pilgrim who, in the Commedia, claims to have personally visited Hell, Purgatory and Paradise? And if so, as seems likely, what do we make of Chaucer’s rejection of Dante’s “beautiful style,” and his comparative emphasis on irony, incompleteness, and bodily humor? Reading these foundational authors side-by-side sheds unexpected light on each. Could it be that Chaucer was Dante’s canniest reader? In this
seminar we will read generous extracts from Chaucer in the original Middle English, as well as the Commedia of Dante, and additional short texts, in modern English translation.