![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() These positions of knowing and unknowing render such beginnings ambivalent and complex. Meant to be read first, they are usually written last, and as such are marked by both their firstness and lastness. Philosopher Jacques Derrida problematizes the borders at which texts begin and end in a way that can help us think about the paradoxical status introductions and prologues hold (Derrida). ![]() Situated at the beginning of Chaucer’s work, the Prologue’s position as “first” would seem obvious, but we should reconsider the simple introduction it offers. Introducing the Canterbury Tales, the General Prologue produces a collaboration of strangers, a “compaignye” of pilgrims whose tales cooperate, conflict, and compete for attention. Beside and within these portraits of professional figures from Chaucer’s late medieval English society, the Prologue witnesses traffic among places, languages, and cultures as well as between the religious and the secular. It frames the longer story collection by setting the season, describing the pilgrims who will narrate the tales, and laying the ground rules of the storytelling contest. The General Prologue is, arguably, the most familiar part of the Canterbury Tales. The General Prologue: Cultural Crossings, Collaborations, and Conflicts Elizabeth Scala An essay chapter from The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales (September 2017) ![]()
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