Recasting *The Canterbury Tales* Assignment Description

ENGL1102/Spring 2010/Wharton
Individual Assignment 2: Recasting The Canterbury Tales

Overview:

The goal of this assignment is to create a multimodal composition that describes a new or updated character for Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, and explains and justifies the rationale behind the choices that you make in constructing your new or updated “pilgrim.” This is an opportunity to expand upon the choice that you made in the first assignment regarding a new setting for the “General Prologue.” So your new or updated Canterbury character should be one that you might find in the new setting that you described in Assignment 1, “Resetting The Canterbury Tales.” Your final composition will comprise two essential elements:

• A two-minute video, which may incorporate both “found” and “original” video, images, sounds, and music, that depicts and describes your new or updated character.

• A 750-word essay that describes, explains, and/or justifies your new character.

Assignment Description:

In our discussions of The Canterbury Tales we have explored how Chaucer draws upon and transforms literary source materials, social and professional stereotypes, and the people he may have seen around him every day to create characters that fill specific roles and help to convey purpose and meaning within his work. We have talked about how the choices that he makes in adapting source material help us to understand and interpret the Tales themselves, as well as Chaucer’s own understanding and interpretation of, and response to his sources. We have also seen a modern stage adaptation of The Canterbury Tales, in which the modern author or adapter made specific choices about setting and characterization that themselves offer up an interpretation of the Tales and their meaning for a modern audience.

This assignment asks you to create a multimodal composition that offers your own interpretation of at least one of The Canterbury Tales and your thoughts on the role that characterization plays in creating meaning within the tale upon which you have chosen to focus and, to some extent, the Tales as a whole. So, part of your job in creating a new or updated character is deciding which of the Tales he or she might tell and how he or she would tell it. Your interpretation of the tale you choose should be shaped by your own thoughts on:

• Chaucer’s purpose in writing the tale you have chosen and The Canterbury Tales as a whole

• the relationship between the tale you have chosen, the Tales as a whole, and the social and historical context in which Chaucer wrote

• the relationship between the tale you have chosen and the pilgrim that Chaucer originally chose as its teller

• the significance of each character as a “source” of his or her tale

• Chaucer’s use of character to distance himself from, or bring himself closer to the author(s) of his source material

Rather than thinking of this as two separate compositions, consider it as a single composition comprising two multimodal elements, each of which can incorporate one or more modes from the WOVEN (written, oral, visual, electronic, non-verbal) spectrum. So your video might contain written and oral, as well as visual and non-verbal elements, and the essay could incorporate visual, oral and non-verbal elements, as well as written text. To some extent, the entire composition will be electronic, since all stages and the final draft will be posted as a unified composition in a single posting to your individual blog. As a whole, the composition should be constructed around and unified by your “thesis,” which is your interpretation of the tale you’ve chosen and your understanding of its place in The Canterbury Tales as a whole.

Elements of the Composition:

Two-minute video

• must provide a description/explanation of your new or updated character and must offer some indication of which of The Canterbury Tales he or she would tell, and how he or she would tell it

• should consist of no more and no fewer than two minutes of footage

• can make use of standard videography, photography, digital or computer generated imaging techniques, free-hand drawing/animation, or any combination thereof

• should probably include audio

• may make use of both “found” and “original” video, images, sounds, and/or music

• should show consideration of the following:

1. what is Chaucer’s purpose in writing The Canterbury Tales?
2. how do the pilgrims work as the sources of their tales?
3. how does Chaucer use characterization to comment upon or transform the meaning/nature of his source material?
4. what is the relationship between your new or updated character and the Canterbury tale he or she will tell?
5. how do the choices you’ve made in creating or updating your character reflect your interpretation of the Canterbury tale you’ve chosen?
6. how do the choices you’ve made in creating or updating your character convey or change the meaning of the Canterbury tale you’ve chosen?
7. what attitude to the Canterbury tale you’ve chosen are you trying to evoke, and how does that relate to the attitude evoked by the Chaucer’s original teller of that tale?
8. what adjectives are generally associated with the character you’ve chosen, and how do those adjectives relate to the adjectives one might use to describe the teller Chaucer originally created for the tale you’ve chosen?
9. how does the video work with the essay to present a complete description and justification of your new or updated character, and your decision to assign him/her as the teller of the tale you’ve chosen?

750-word Essay

• should consist of no fewer than 750 words

• *****should state your thesis clearly*****

• should be organized around your thesis, with paragraphs organized around the main points of your argument

• should be relatively formal in tone and should provide specific evidence, drawn from Chaucer’s text, the source material, our class discussions, and the other two elements of your composition, in support of all of your major points

• may include visual, non-verbal or other modes of composition in addition to written text

• should show some consideration of all the items listed above in the description of the video, in addition to the following:

1. what is your interpretation of the tale you’ve chosen and The Canterbury Tales as a whole?
2. how does the video help to present and/or explain your interpretation?
3. how have you integrated the essay with the video as a single, seamless, composition?

Assignment Stages:

All drafts, including Stage 3 your final draft, will be posted to your individual blog. Peer-reviews will be posted as comments to your peer’s individual blog. Remember that all assignment stages must be completed in order to avoid receiving an unsatisfactory grade for an incomplete assignment.

*****Video equipment can be rented from the library, and video editing software is available in the library’s multimedia center. If you are planning on using the library’s resources, make sure that you plan accordingly.*****

Stage 1: Rough Draft of ***either*** your essay or your video (Posted to your individual blog as “Recasting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 1” by class time on Friday, February 12, 4 points)

• video rough draft -- Should consist of at least four minutes of footage and should be uploaded to the web--for example to your public folder on Prism or to a video-hosting site such as YouTube. “Posting” the video to your blog involves embedding a link to the video in your blog posting in such a way that the video plays or can be played within the blog without transitioning to a new site or opening a new tab/window like this:

*****Tips on embedding YouTube video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/youtubeonyoursite*****

• essay rough draft -- Should consist of at least 500 words and should offer a clear, arguable, specific thesis and a complete overview of your proposed argument.

Out-of-class peer-review of Stage 1, reviews of two (2) peers to be completed by 11:00 pm on Saturday, February 13, 4 points

Stage 2: Rough draft of whichever element for which you do not yet have a draft (Posted to your individual blog as “Recasting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 2” by class time on Monday, February 15, 4 points)

• your second draft should consist of a new posting to your individual blog that comprises a draft of ***either*** your video or your essay, whichever you did not do for Stage 1.

• see above for detailed instructions on what counts as a draft

In-class peer-review of Stage 2, reviews of two (2) peers to be completed in class Monday, February 15, 4 points

Stage 4: Final Draft (Posted to your individual blog as “Recasting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 3” by 11:00 pm on Monday, February 22, 80 points)

• the final draft should be a blog posting that integrates the final draft of your video and the 750-word essay

• *****your final draft MUST include a works-cited list that identifies ALL source material, including anything drawn from the texts we’ve been discussing in class, as well as the sources of found material in your video*****

• once again, “posting” this stage to your blog involves embedding a link to the video in your blog posting in such a way that it plays or can be played within the blog without transitioning to a new site or opening a new tab/window

• since this is the final draft, I expect all formatting and linking issues to be resolved at this point, wonky formatting and broken links, like typos and grammatical errors, will negatively impact your final grade

Stage 5: Reflection (Posted to your individual blog as “Recasting The Canterbury Tales” Stage 5” by 11:00 pm on Monday, March 8, 4 points)

How did your composition evolve from one draft to the next in response to peer feedback and/or your own consideration of it? How does your final draft use more than alphabetic text to convey your argument? What composition strategies worked well for you in this assignment, and how might they work well in other rhetorical situations?

Assignment Goals and Desired Learning Outcomes:

Rhetorical Awareness: The rhetorical situation comprises your purpose, audience and context. The rhetorical situation influences the kind of arguments that you can make as well as how you make them. You should have a clear idea of your audience, purpose and context before you begin composing, and your final draft (which includes both elements) should reflect your awareness of all three. Ideally, your composition should express your unique personality as an author, in addition to making a persuasive argument for your interpretation of the tale you have chosen and how characterization affects meaning in The Canterbury Tales.

Stance and Support: Making an argument involves using appropriate evidence drawn from appropriate sources. Material (summaries, paraphrases, quotations) drawn from all of your sources should be relevant to and integrated with your argument, and you should provide proper attribution in MLA format when you incorporate the words, work or ideas of another in your essay. When you rely on your own personal experience and knowledge, you should clearly identify it as such, and such examples should also be relevant to and integrated with your argument.

Organization: A composition follows a logical progression from introduction to conclusion. Ideally, your final draft should have a form that reflects the logical progression of your argument and an awareness of the needs of your audience in understanding it, rather than one that follows a pre-determined formula (e.g., the video followed by a “five paragraph theme”). Consider how you might use text to introduce the video in your blog and control where and when your audience plays it, “wrapping” your text around it so that it encourages your audience to see the video as an integrated part of your argument.

Conventions: This assignment is designed to get you thinking about the conventions of multiple modes of communication and how those conventions influence a composition that incorporates more than a single dominant mode. Ideally, your composition should reflect an awareness of the conventions of visual, aural and electronic media while also complying with conventional rules regarding citations and documentation, grammar, punctuation and mechanics in the textual component.

Multimodal Integration: In this assignment, you will work with integrating multiple modes into a unified work. Ideally, your final draft will demonstrate some understanding of how multiple modes of communication work together to create the final composition.

Grading Rubric: I will use the attached rubric as a guide when grading your projects. Comments on your work will in most cases consist of a summary of how the rubric applies to your work, and extended comments on the final draft.