Topics for Paper #2

Your second paper, like your first, needs to be grounded in close reading. It should be 4-6 pages long. You may once again choose to exploit a particular, well-defined passage from a single tale or prologue, or you may choose to look at connections between tales and/or prologues, but in either case remember to pay close attention to Chaucer's language and what he is doing with it. Here are some possible topics; you may, if you like, develop your own, but please clear it with me first. Do not attempt a topic which is too broad; you cannot, for instance, treat "Chaucer's attitudes towards women" or "Chaucer's attitude towards religion" in a paper as short as this, nor can you handle the issue of what Chaucer is doing with narrative voice. Be specific!

• The Man of Law's Tale and the Clerk's Tale both deal with "ideal" women; from whose point of view are they ideal? What interests does the ideal serve? Do you think Chaucer is endorsing this ideal, or questioning it?
• Glosing is a major issue in many of the tales (including, but not limited to, those of Fragment III); choose a passage where glosing is at work and explore the implications of it. What is the text? Who provides the gloss? What is the effect of gloss upon text? Of glosing upon glosour?
• How is the Prioresse's tale appropriate to the Prioresse? Is she the anti-semite, or is Chaucer? Are they both?
• How is the Pardoner, who is such a bad man, able to tell such a good tale? Attempt a reading of his tale and prologue (and perhaps the portrait from the General Prologue) which explains this paradox.
• What does the garden in the Merchant's Tale mean? How does it operate? What does it imply, not for the plot but for the narrative, the telling of the tale? What kinds of echoes, resonances does it establish? To what effect?
• What is magic and how does it work? How is it connected to love and marriage, in either the Wife of Bath's Tale or the Franklin's Tale? Is magic an antidote to "wo that is in marriage"?
• Is the Franklin's Tale a response to the Merchant's Tale? If so, how does it operate?
• The Host prevents Chaucer from finishing the Tale of Sir Thopas; why? What is achieved by this interruption? What can a reading of the Tale of Sir Thopas tell us about Chaucer the Pilgrim? About Chaucer the Poet?

Secondary research is not required; however, you may feel free to make use of any of the materials we have read in class (Kitteredge, the various articles on the Franklin's Tale, etc.) or of anything you may have come across while preparing your oral report. Make sure, however, that all secondary sources are cited appropriately. If you are at all unsure about how to cite properly, or what the difference between a footnote reference and a bibliography reference is, try this link to the University of Illinois Writing Workshop. Ignorance is never an excuse for improper citation, still less for plagiarism.

This paper will be due on Friday, April 16, at 5:00, in my office (203 Woodside Cottage)