Chaucer Here and Now
A fascinating and authoritative collection of essays examining the varied adaptations of and responses to Chaucer’s work.
The Geoffrey Chaucer of this book is not the Father of English Literature that you think you know. In this wide-ranging collection of essays you will find wartime Chaucer, postcolonial Chaucer, feminist Chaucer, misogynist Chaucer, radical Chaucer and conservative Chaucer, among many other interpretations.
Featuring beautiful illustrations of early manuscripts and rare editions, Chaucer Here and Now gives a picture of how varied adaptations of and responses to his work have been, from fifteenth- century scribes who finished off incomplete tales, through early printers who constructed Chaucer as the Father of the Nation, to contemporary postcolonial writers such as Zadie Smith. The book moves through years of censorship, the creation of children’s Chaucer, Protestant Chaucer and imperial Chaucer — and the travels of Chaucer all around the world. It also explores Chaucer on film and Chaucer in the present moment.
Today’s creative responses follow in a line of irreverent, partial responses that we can trace back to Chaucer’s very first readers and editors, showing that Chaucer is available for every here and now to remake, rework and reinvent.
‘Accessible and ambitious, Chaucer Here and Now enriched and inspired me as a reader and a writer. It will thrill Chaucer aficionados and bring his works to a diverse new audience.’ — Patience Agbabi
Marion Turner holds the J.R.R. Tolkien Chair of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford. Her most recent book is The Wife of Bath: A Biography (2023).
