16 - Postscript: How to Talk about Chaucer with Your Friends and Colleagues

Summary

Professional teaching and research devoted to the Canterbury Tales largely developed within the modern research university, and that’s where most students of Chaucer learn the disciplinary languages necessary for participation in the field – Middle English and some of its dialects, a little Latin and French, and the discourses of contemporary literary and cultural criticism. But the institutions that house such study are also the site of administrative, curricular, and budgetary decisions that necessarily affect, at one remove or another, work in the field, so ideally Chaucerians and prospective Chaucerians should acquaint themselves as well with the various institutional languages that can be used to recruit attention, resources, and allies to the cause. Becoming more fluent in the campus languages of success, of assessment, and of strategic plans and self-promotion puts us in the position to more effectively help colleagues, administrators, and students understand the answers they get when they ask the question “why Chaucer?”