They are critically acclaimed works of medieval literature that tell the story of a religious pilgrimage to one of the most important cathedrals in all of Christendom.
But to the surprise of critics, a leading university has issued a warning to Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales – because it contains ‘expressions of the Christian faith’.
Nottingham University is now being accused of ‘degrading teaching’ for warning students about the religious elements of Chaucer’s stories – saying that anyone studying one of the most famous works of English literature would hardly need to point out the Christian references.
The Mail on Sunday has obtained details of the notice issued to students studying a module called Chaucer and His Contemporaries under Freedom of Information laws. It alerts them to instances of violence, mental illness, and expressions of Christian faith in the works of Chaucer and fellow medieval writers William Langland, John Gower, and Thomas Hoccleve.
Nottingham University has now been accused of ‘degrading teaching’ for warning students about the religious elements of Chaucer’s stories – saying anyone studying one of the most famous works of English literature would hardly need to point out the Christian references
But to the surprise of critics, a leading university has issued a warning to Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales – because they contain ‘expressions of the Christian faith’.
The Canterbury Tales, written between 1387 and 1400, is a collection of stories about characters on a pilgrimage from London to the grave of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral
Written between 1387 and 1400, The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories about characters on a pilgrimage from London to the grave of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.
Among them are the promiscuous Wife of Bath, the drunken miller and the thieving reeve, who delight and shock each other with stories that contain explicit references to rape, lust and even anti-Semitism.
However, the university’s warning does not refer to anti-Semitism or sexually explicit themes.
Frank Furedi, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, said: ‘It is strange to warn students of Chaucer about Christian expressions of faith. Because all the characters in the stories are immersed in a Christian experience, there are bound to be many expressions of faith. The problem is not Chaucer’s so-called student readers, but the virtue-signaling, ignorant academics.”
Historian Jeremy Black added: ‘Presumably this nonsense in Nottingham is a product of the need to validate courses against tick-the-box criteria. It is sad, funny and humiliating for education at the same time.’
A spokesperson for the university said it ‘champions diversity’, adding: ‘Even those who are practicing Christians will find aspects of the late medieval worldview… alienating and strange.’