Geoffrey Chaucer

a cura di R. Beolè
 
 A group of pilgrims are on their way to Canterbury to visit Thomas Becket's shrine. They decide that each of them will tell a story of their own. A cross-section of the 14thcentury society, realistically highlighted in the General Prologue, and in tales such as The Knight's Tale, The Miller's Tale, The Wife of Bath's Tale, The Merchant's Tale and The Pardoner's Tale.
 A historical and linguistic presentation introduces the book; stimulating closer examinations enrich each tale.
 
 Teacher's Resources available online: Answer Key - Audioscripts - Summing-up Activities
 
 Sulla strada verso Canterbury, in visita al santuario di Thomas Becket, un gruppo di pellegrini decide di raccontare ognuno una propria storia. Uno spaccato della società inglese del XIV secolo, evidenziato realisticamente nel General Prologue e da racconti quali The Knight’s Tale, The Miller’s Tale, The Wife of Bath’s Tale, The Merchant’s Tale e The Pardoner’s Tale. Arricchiscono il reader l’introduzione al periodo e all’opera, e approfondimenti sulle tematiche presenti nei vari racconti.

Introduction to The Canterbury Tales

General Prologue

Extension: Medieval pilgrimages

Tale 1 – The Knight’s Tale

Extension: The Knight

Tale 2 – The Miller’s Tale

Extension: The fabliau

Tale 3 – The Wife of Bath (Prologue and Tale)

Extension: The loathly lady

Tale 4 – The Merchant’s Tale

Extension: Trade in the Middle Ages

Tale 5 – The Pardoner’s Tale

Extension: Stage and film adaptations

Summing-up activities

Glossary

E X T E N S I O N STAGE AND FILM ADAPTATIONS The first reference to The Canterbury Tales was The Two Noble Kinsmen, attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, a re-telling of The Knight s Tale, which was first performed in 1613. Coming to modern times, A Canterbury Tale was released in 1944, jointly written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and loosely1 based on the narrative frame of Chaucer s tales, the film opens with a group of medieval pilgrims journeying through the Kentish countryside as a narrator speaks the opening lines of the General Prologue. The scene then makes a transition to the time of World War II. In 1961, Erik Chisholm completed his opera, The Canterbury Tales, which is in three acts: The Wife of Bath s Tale, The Pardoner s Tale and The Nun s Priest s Tale. Poet Nevill Coghill s modern English version formed the basis of a musical version, composed by Richard Hill and first staged in 1964. 1. loosely: freely 84 

Pier Paolo Pasolini s 1972 film The Canterbury Tales features2 several of the tales, some of which keep close to the original tale and some of which are embellished3. The film includes The Miller s Tale, The Wife of Bath s Tale and The Merchant s Tale. Several more recent films, while not based on the tales, do develop the themes in them. For example, in the 1995 film Se7en (with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman), The Parson s Tale is an important clue4 to the methods of a serial killer who chooses his victims based on the seven deadly sins. The 2001 film, A Knight s Tale took its name from the tale of the same title, even though it has little resemblance to it. Television adaptations include Alan Plater s 1975 re-telling of the stories in a series of plays for BBC2: Trinity Tales. In this adaptation, the stories were told by a party of rugby league supporters on their way to a cup final at Wembley. Later, in 2004, the BBC again featured a modern re-telling of selected tales. 2. features: presents 3. embellished: rendered more beautiful or interesting by adding something to it 4. clue: evidence or information which helps to find the answer to a problem or mystery. 85 

Esplora i racconti dei pellegrini verso Canterbury e la società inglese del XIV secolo, arricchiti da approfondimenti storici e tematici.

The Canterbury Tales Collana RAINBOWS

Level B1 • Pre-Intermediate - Collana RAINBOWS

The Canterbury Tales

Flowbooks è una piattaforma di distribuzione dedicata al mondo della scuola e dell'università.  Con questa piattaforma di distribuzione, il team di sviluppo Flowbooks  si impegna a soddisfare le esigenze degli utenti digitali, rendendo l'utilizzo accessibile e piacevole.  Entra nella tua area di interesse!

Edisco è una Casa editrice indipendente che opera prevalentemente nel settore educativo.

Edisco

Flowbooks è innovazione didattica a portata di click