Unveiling the Tapestry
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is a fusion of multiple narratives woven together into a single literary experience. Throughout the work, Chaucer incorporates many different perspectives on human lives during the Medieval period in England to provide reflections on human nature and offer social commentary. Embedded within the Satire, Fragmentation, and Metafiction, Chaucer emphasizes the distinct differences in all the social classes of the time while simultaneously satirizes absurdities inherent in all of them.
Satirical Pilgrimage
Although The Canterbury Tales was written as a Medieval literary work, it expresses many Postmodern qualities, one of which includes Satire. We can see the use of satire especially in the first few line of The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale that read, “Experience, though noon auctoritee, Were in this world, is right ynogh for me, To speke of wo that is in mariage;”. The Wife of Bath satirizes marriage and gender roles by presenting herself as an authority on the subject. The implementation of the word “authority” suggests that she does not have the RIGHT to even think about the bad parts of marriage. This suggests the inferiority of the wives to their husbands at the time and how they had absolutely no say in anything, no authority or rights. This same satirical quality can be seen in Kate Crosby’s short story, “Inside Where You Belong”. The short story pokes fun at the way society puts world issues on the backburner while they are in their own bubble. The family and the doberman were representing the human race and the carelessness that comes with it. The son is an indication of the brain rot we are continuing to experience by just walking away from our problems everyday and going to hop on the video games. Even though they were written in two different time periods, both The Canterbury Tales and “Inside Where you Belong" provide profound insights into the nature of human society. These both tie into social constructs and expectations that are relevant in today’s day and age.
Fragmented Narratives
In addition to Satire, the use of Fragmentation is very apparent throughout The Canterbury Tales. We can see the utilization of narrative structure fragmentation in the opening lines of the General Prologue that reads, “Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,”. The abrupt transition between the april weather and the march weather described by the narrator causes a sudden switch in scenery. Chaucer did this to keep the reader on their toes and ready for the many fragmented parts in the story to be thrown at them. This relates very closely to Nnamdi’s song “Semantics”. The music shifts abruptly between different temporal, rhythms, and melodies creating a sense of disjunction and unpredictability. This fragmentation portrays the postmodern idea that there is no single fixed interpretation of reality, but rather a multiplicity of perspectives and interpretation. These two works both have unexpected shifts in their tempo/ descriptions which I think is a great literary tactic to make the story fun and to encapsulate the reader. With the use of fragmentation, the reader becomes immersed into the story and gains a better understanding contrary to the confusing shifts.
The Metafictional Odyssey
Another postmodern element that can be found within the story is Metafiction. It is very noticeable in The Parson’s Tale on the line 3125 that read, “By armes, and by blood and bones, I kan a noble tale for the nones, With which I wol now quite the Knyghtes tale.”. The miller interrupts the Host insisting that he tell his tale next, despite it not being his turn according to the established order. This disruption of the storytelling framework highlights Miller's disregard for convention and his assertion of his own authority to the storyteller. This further supports the claim that The Canterbury Tales has many postmodern qualities because of the stray away of tradition and patterns that the Miller is withholding. This metafiction can be tied to the metafiction in The Gorillaz music video for their song “Humility”. The band itself is a form of metafiction due to the animation of the singers that create this virtual entity. The characters that make up the band exist within a fictional universe but interact with real-world audiences through music and visual media. This proves that Chaucer was way ahead of his time, including metafiction in his story from the 14th century just as the Gorillaz did with this music video in the 21st century.
Chaucer’s Legacy in the Contemporary World
As in this essay, The Canterbury Tales embody numerous postmodern traits. From satire and fragmentation to metafiction, Geoffrey Chaucer’s writing encompasses a diverse array of elements. Despite being written in medieval times, the tales surprisingly resonate with literature from the 21st century. The recurrence of themes across centuries prompts contemplation on the cyclical nature of history, leaving one to ponder how future literature will evolve.
Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. from The Canterbury Tales. 1387. Translated by Nevill Coghill, myPerspectives, English Language
Arts IV, Edited by Morrell, Ernst, Ph.D., et al., Pearson, 2006. pp. 185-228.
Crosby, Kate. “Inside Where You Belong”. 2016. Pank Magazine, no. 3, pankmagazine.com/piece/inside-where-you-belong/
Leach, Holly. “Highlights of Postmodernism.” Nerd Central, 3 May 2023, nerdcentralorg.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/highlights-of-postmodernism.pdf. Accessed 10 May 2024.
Night Cafe. “Medieval Writer” NightCafe, 2019, creator.nightcafe.studio/studio. Accessed 10 May 2024.
Nnamdi. “Semantics”. 2020. Genius, genius.com/Nnamdi-semantics-lyrics. Accessed 10 May 2024
The Gorillaz. “Humility.” YouTube, 31 May 2018. youtu.be/E5yFcdPAGv0?si=3dhtpK4vrFJxUG4l . Accessed 10 May 2024.