Reading and Pilgrimage: From Chaucer’s Canterbury to the Modern Pilgrim’s Way

In the final decades of the 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer chose a pilgrimage toCanterbury as the frame for his Canterbury Tales, an unfinished collection of storieswhich entertained readers with its bawdy humor and thought-provoking socialcommentary, and inspired millions of pilgrims to see the holy relics and shrine of St.Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. Chaucer’s work also actively reminds us that readers and pilgrims are constantly recreating a text through direct experience of “the way,” the pathway of generations of pilgrims before them or the way laid out by an author and followed by each reader individually. By means of an informal dialog accompanied by images, this presentation will explore the deep connection between the acts of reading, pilgrimage, and human experience, focusing attention on the experience of the Pilgrim’s Way in text and trek from Chaucer’s world to our own