Your assignment: Write a four-page essay that answers the following: 1) Provide or quote a definition of the chivalric romance genre. Then explain how the Knight’s Tale fits this definition. How do we know that the Knight’s Tale is a romance rather than an epic? 2) Provide or quote (Wikipedia is fine) a definition of the fabliau genre. How do we know that the Miller’s Tale is a fabliau? 3) The Miller clearly intends his tale to be a parody of the Knight’s Tale. How does genre help him to do this? In other words, how does choosing to tell a fabliau help the Miller to make fun of and create a parody of the Knight’s chivalric romance?
You are not required to use external sources other than your text and the links provided above; if you choose to do so, however, you are required to cite those sources (failing to do so constitutes plagiarism). As always, your writing will be graded not only for how well you fulfill the instructions, but also for the quality of the writing itself, including clarity, grammar, and mechanics. Please see the “Writing Guidelines” document at the top of the main Moodle page for tips.
A few things to note: 1) The epic and romance genres share many traits, but have some important differences; 2) We have seen two examples of chivalric romances thus far (SGGK and the Knight’s Tale), and you almost certainly see the similarities in those right away (knightly protagonists on quests, castles, romantic love as a theme); and 3) Note that The Canterbury Tales itself is a frame narrative, which is essentially a frame to contain other stories, but that the General Prologue and each of the tales has its own genre.
