Literatura Inglesa I Genres in The Canterbury Tales Margarita Carretero Gonzlez

GE NRES

TALES (numbers indicate the position each tale takes in the Ellesmere Manuscript) 1. The Knights Tale 6. The Wife of Baths Tale 11. The Squires Tale 17. Chaucers Tale of Sir Thopas 12. The Franklins Tale 2. The Millers Tale 3. The Reeves Tale 4. The Cooks Tale (unifnished) 8. The Summoners Tale 10. The Merchants Tale 15. The Shipmans Tale

Romance

Breton lai Fabliau

A short narrative in octosyllabic verse, usually of 300 to 400 lines. The genre flourished in France between 1150 and 1400 AD. About 150 are extant. [...] Fabliaux tended to be ribaldry comic tales. They were satirical, in a rough and ready fashion, often at the expense of the clergy. Their caustic attitude towards women may have been a reaction against the apotheosis of women in the tradition and cult of courtly love. The form is primarily French, but there are examples in English literature, like Chaucers Millers Tale and Reeves Tale (late 14th c.). From J.A. Cuddons Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, p. 323.

Romance + saints life Saints life Exemplum(or exemplary tale)

5. The Man of Laws Tale 9. The Clerks Tale 21. The Second Nuns Tale 7. The Friars Tale 13. The Physicians Tale 14. The Pardoners Tale 20. The Nuns Priests Tale + exemplum 23. The Manciples Tale 16. The Prioresss Tale 18. Chaucers Tale of Melibeus (Melibee) 19. The Monks Tale 22. The Canons Yeomans Tale

Beast-fable just-so-story + exemplum Miracle Moral treatise tragedie A recreation of real life (Helen Cooper, p. 370)