List of Lists: Chaucer Translations and Adaptations
The list linked above includes incomplete entries and, undoubtedly, errors. Please contact us with corrections and additions.
Updated March 2022.
Below is a preliminary — and by no means extensive — selection of print and online resources for people with interests in Chaucerian reception around the world.
Selected publications directly tied to the Global Chaucers project [reverse chronological order]:
- Candace Barrington. “The Global Pilgrimage of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.” A Companion to World Literature. Vol 2. General Editor, Ken Seigneurie (New York: Wiley & Sons, 2020).
- Candace Barrington and Jonathan Hsy, “Afterlives.” In A New Companion to Chaucer, edited by Peter Brown (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), 7-19.
- Candace Barrington and Jonathan Hsy, Chaucer’s Global Compaignye [edited collection on Chaucer adaptations worldwide in and beyond English]. Special issue of the Global Circulation Project at Literature Compass 15.6 (June 2018), e12419.
- Candace Barrington and Jonathan Hsy, “Chaucer’s Global Orbits and Global Communities.” Editors’ Introduction to special issue of the Global Circulation Project: Chaucer’s Global Compaignye. Literature Compass 15.6 (June 2018): e12457. https://doi.org/10.1111/lic3.12457.
- Candace Barrington and Jonathan Hsy, “Global Chaucers.” In Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture, ed. Gail Ashton (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017, repr. from 2015), 147-156.
- Candace Barrington, “Traveling Chaucer: Comparative Translation and Cosmopolitan Humanism,” Educational Theory 64, 5 (2014): 463-477 [article available here].
Other works on Chauceriana in Anglophone contexts include [reverse chronological order]:
- Jonathan Hsy and Candace Barrington, “Queer Times, Queer Forms: Noir Medievalism and Patience Agbabi’s Telling Tales.” In Time Mechanics: Postmodern Poetry and Queer Medievalisms, edited by David Hadbawnik (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Press, 2022), 159-177.
- Jonathan Hsy, “Pilgrimage: Chaucerian Poets of Color in Motion.” Chapter Six of Antiracist Medievalisms: From “Yellow Peril” to Black Lives Matter (Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, 2021), 115-132.
- Kathleen Forni, Chaucer’s Afterlife: Adaptations in Recent Popular Culture (2013).
- Myra Seaman, Eileen A. Joy, and Nicola Masciandaro, eds., Dark Chaucer: An Assortment (2012) [see also this review of the collection by Marion Turner].
- Brantley Bryant, Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog: Medieval Studies and New Media (2010).
- Stephanie Trigg, Congenial Souls: Reading Chaucer from Medieval to Postmodern (2002).
An important resource for the international reception of Chaucer pre-1900, see Caroline (Frances Eleanor) Spurgeon’s Five Hundred Years of Chaucer Criticism and Allusion (3 vols, first publ. 1908) [volume 1 (1357-1800) is fully digitized; volume 2 has a partial preview; volume 3 has no preview].
Online Catalogs of Chaucerian Adaptations (in English)
Chaucer Editions: An extensive resource for illustrated editions of Chaucer in English.
Kelmscott Chaucer: A catalog of all existing copies of The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1896), commonly known as the Kelmscott Chaucer, edited by William Morris and illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones.
Visualizing Chaucer (University of Rochester): dynamic online archive of Chauceriana in the visual arts, with a full bibliography compiled by Kara L. McShane.
Chaucer in Other Media (in English)
Chaucer in Music [alphabetical order by surname]
- Baba Brinkman: website for “Rap Canterbury Tales” (2004).
- Baba Brinkman: website for “Canterbury Tales Remixed” (2012).
- Devlyn Chase (music) and Christopher Hood (libretto), The Prioress’s Tale: chamber opera adaptation (an ongoing project). View one excerpt (with others online).
- Reginald De Koven, The Canterbury Pilgrims (1917). Opera loosely adapted from the Tales [entire libretto online].
- Oliver William Robinson, Chauntecleer, or, Chickens Come Home to Roost: A Children’s Operetta in One Act (1933). Vocal score and libretto.
- Alice Shields: Criseyde (2008): a new opera retelling from Criseyde’s perspective.
- Wendy Steiner (libretto) and Paul Richards (music). The Loathly Lady: A Comic Opera (animated): an animated work in progress. View the pilot (2009) and read some more coverage of this project.
Chaucer in Dramatic Performance [reverse chronological order]
- Zadie Smith, “The Wife of Willesden” (2020); now in book form: Zadie Smith, The Wife of Willesden (Penguin Books, 2021).
[Includes “The Wife of Willesden’s Tale,” preceded by “The General Lock-In” and followed by “A Retraction,” told in verse couples translated “from the Chaucerian into North Weezian.”] - Ufuoma Overo-Tarimo, Wahala Dey O! [adaptation of The Miller’s Tale incorporating Nigerian Pidgin English], debut at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2012; reading with pilot film excerpts at Tjanarbio in Reykjavík, Iceland, 2014.
[Now available as an annotated critical edition: Ufuoma Overo-Tarimo, The Miller’s Tale: Wahala Dey O! A Nigerian Play Adaptation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tale, edited by Jessica Lockhart, with Aleheh Amini, Mussie Berhane, Mahera Islam, and Justin Phillips (University of Toronto-Mississauga, 2018).] - RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company): The Canterbury Tales, in Two Parts (2005).
- Chaucer Theatre, aka Geoffrey Chaucer & Co. (ongoing performances).
- Phil Woods and Michael Bogdanov, Canterbury Tales: Chaucer Made Modern (1995; first publ. 1981) [play text].
- “The Canterbury Tales Musical” (1969): Believe it or not, this show apparently had a successful run on Broadway.
Chaucer in (on) Film [reverse chronological order]
- BBC Canterbury Tales (2003): Adaptations of Chaucer’s tales, set in modern multiethnic Britain [six tales only: KnT, MilT, WBT, MLT, ShipT, PardT].
- List of Lists: Chaucer Translations and Adaptations
Other Resources
Interview with Chaucer’s Translators
These interviews are based on questions drawn from this question bank.
Student Reading Surveys
These reports are based on a guided questionnaire.
Teaching Resources
- New Chaucer Society: resources
- John Gower Society’s video seminar, Teaching Online for Medievalists
- Medieval Academy of America: Medieval Digital Resources
- Middle Ages for Educators
- From NCS#18: Chaucer and Muslim Readers resources, packet
- Open Access Companion to Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. 10/20/2017. https://opencanterburytales.dsl.lsu.edu/.
Resources for Early Global Cultures
Pamphlet for NCS2018 exhibit at Art Gallery of Ontario, July 2018.