Chaucer represents the very things he is being dropped in favour of
Chaucer told us not to remain stuck in a reassuring echo chamber of our own opinions
21 January 2021 • 8:19pm
Chaucer has been dropped by the English department at the University of Leicester in favour of a decolonised curriculum, with modules on race and sexuality. As a biographer of Chaucer, I am naturally saddened by the news - but more than anything, because I feel students are missing out. Chaucer is being misunderstood as some sort of fusty, old figure, when actually, he could teach students a lot about the world today – including about issues connected to gender, race, and marginalised voices.