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This course explores the early poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer and asks what his works, although written over 400 years ago, can teach us about the craft of literature and the nature of fiction. Our primary focus will be on Troilus and Criseyde: a tragic love story set against the backdrop of the Trojan War, which raises crucial questions about gender and sexuality, the ethics of authorship, and the relationship between history and literature. Through the close reading of Chaucer's writings in the original Middle English, as well as some of their sources and later adaptations by Shakespeare and others, we will discover the poet's radical innovations in literary form, as well as examine his foundational role in English literary history. No prior knowledge of Middle English is required.