Literary Experiments

The Wife of Bath

So I have been dying to write about two teaching experiments I tried recently in my Introduction to Literature class. Let me remind you that this class is a bizarre medley. I have students who can barely write complete sentences all the way to those who can thoughtfully analyze literature. I can pretty much teach any type of literature, in any order, and arrange the literature/writing balance any way that I want. I am not going to lie; this is a frustrating course. The range of ability levels and understanding is challenging enough without the added burden of getting them to an acceptable college writing level.
In this environment I thought I would try going outside of our required textbook in order to give them a wider range of literature and introduce them to texts that they otherwise will never read (I am betting). So to begin the poetry unit I assigned Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale" and Samuel Coleridge's "Christabel." You may remember that I blogged recently about teaching this last work in my other class.

For "The Wife of Bath's Tale" I restricted it to the prologue of the wife and her tale. I also used an edition which had a "translation" line by line from the Middle English (I was not about to have them read hundreds of lines like "To speke of wo that is in mariage; For, lordynges, sith I twelve yeer was of age" - yes, this is an example of Middle English). I was surprised to find out that some of them had read a couple of the tales before - in high school or in another college English class. However most of them did not know that the Canterbury Tales existed let alone any history about medieval England, pilgrims, or medieval texts. So I lectured briefly on each of these subjects to sort of "set the scene." I had handouts showing illuminated manuscripts and scenes from the tales. Then we moved to the text itself - boy was this hard. Hindsight being what it is, I probably should not have assigned the whole prologue. I forgot just how long it is and how many things it references. Even with the translation they could barely answer me on basic details offered in the text. Luckily I had thought to print out selections of the poem organized under specific headings. We also read out loud which helped them understand it considerably better than when they had read it by themselves. I had higher hopes for the tale, but I think the prologue bashed in any chance of them understanding it. Most of them could not even tell me what the "message" was. At one point I veered off this track and used youtube to save the discussion. I played a cartoon adaptation of the Wife's tale (Check it out -it is short and and interesting adaptation - I promise you'll laugh!). They laughed, and finally understood what the tale was about. I was pleased that they laughed - because this is what Chaucer is for me. My lovely roommate recently made fun of me because I said "Oh Chaucer is hilarious." To me, he is the first English comedian. I laugh out loud over parts of his tales and the interactions between the characters. I wanted this hilarity (yes, I said hilarity) to come through to my students. Sadly it did not in the text itself, but it did in the youtube clip. The result of this experiment is mixed - I am not for giving it up entirely should I teach this class again, but I will approach it differently. I have a few ideas in mind to hopefully make it a more productive experience.
The experiment with "Christabel" was much more successful. I only assigned the first part, having learned my lesson with the Chaucer text, and it went over better. I think the language still stumped the students. I could tell that my ESL students had a hard time grasping what was going on. Even my non ESL students missed key plot points. Despite this, and after some group work, we came to a point where the students were actively engaged with the story. They were thoroughly excited over the mystery surrounding Geraldine's identity and her supernatural gifts. They had a riot of a time with the intimate encounter between the two ladies. I will definitely use this text again. However, I have decided that it would be to my benefit to spend more time introducing the texts to the class before they read them - telling them just how to approach them, what to watch out for, etc. I find that this would help immensely in their reading.
Have you ever read either of these texts? Do you find Chaucer hilarious like me?
I am taking the night off tonight - no grading, no lesson planning, and I am giving my poor brain a rest! I plan on making rice krispie treats with my sister. Until tomorrow then.