Talks take place on Thursday afternoons, starting at 2pm, and usually take place in the Lecture Hall, Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA. These are free for Oxford u3a members but you are welcome to attend as a guest for a donation of £5 (£2 for members of all other U3As).
Most talks are recorded on Zoom for the benefit of those Oxford u3a members who are unable to attend Rewley House.
In the event of adverse weather conditions, please telephone Rewley House (01865 270360), to enquire whether the talk has been cancelled.
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Professor Marion Turner – Chaucer’s European Life
June 11 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Marion Turner is the J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford, and a Professorial Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. She teaches and researches medieval literature, and is particularly committed to outreach, working with schools, and public engagement through the media. Marion often appears in the national press, at literary festivals, and on the BBC. Her award-winning books include Chaucer: A European Life (Princeton, 2019) and The Wife of Bath: A Biography (Princeton 2023). Her books have been named as books of the year by outlets including The Financial Times, The Times Literary Supplement, The Sunday Times, The New Yorker, BBC History, the New Statesman, and The Times. She has won the Otto Grundler Prize, the Rose Mary Crawshay Prize, the Beatrice White Prize, and the History Reclaimed Prize, and was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize. Her last two books have been named as Choice Outstanding Academic Titles of the Year. In 2023-2024 she curated the exhibition Chaucer: Here and Now at the Weston Library in Oxford. Marion lives in Oxford with her husband, two children, and dog (a cocker pug).
This talk will explore the world of the later fourteenth century through the life and poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer lived an extraordinary life. In the wake of the Black Death, he was a pageboy, prisoner of war, MP, diplomat, and customs officer. He was in charge of the upkeep of the Tower of London, was paid in wine, rode to Italy at least twice, and navigated the complex politics of court and city. Meanwhile, in his spare time, he devoured literature in many languages and, through his experiments with stanza form, his invention of the iambic pentameter, and his engagement with poets including Dante and Boccaccio, he changed the capacity of poetry in English. How did this son of a vintner become the poet of the Canterbury Tales?