Storybook Topic Styles: Canterbury Tales

Topic: As discussed in my previous Storybook brainstorming assignment, I think it would be cool to do my project over The Canterbury Tales. I would like to feature all of the seven stories of the pilgrims in my project. I would also like all of their voices to be heard. I think the only difficulties of this project will be really getting into the mindset of all of the pilgrims. I will have to really get into character to tell each of their stories well!

Bibliography: Canterbury Tales,  from The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan (1908).


Possible Styles:


Animals/Humans as Storytellers: After browsing through the Canterbury Tales on the UnTextbook, I found that the pilgrims are both animals and humans. My original style idea that I talked about last week was telling this story like a CSI episode. As I also talked about last week, my idea with the Canterbury tales was basing it off of a CSI episode because the agents are trying to figure out who committed the crime (based on who tells the least convincing story). With having the animals and humans as storytellers, I imagine mainly focusing on the pilgrims telling their stories and the agents just being there to interrogate them. I think this is the style that I would like to go with, but I am open to other ideas if you think something would fit better!

CSI agents as Storytellers: This storytelling idea would basically be the same idea as the one I mentioned previously but just flipped. I would focus on the CSI agents part in the story and not focus as much on the pilgrims telling the story. I would still have the pilgrims tell their stories, but would focus more on the agents' thoughts as they were telling their stories (example: "Agent Benson glanced at the friar as he rambled on. She could see that he refused to make eye contact with her or any of the other agents. 'He must be lying,' she thought.")  

Campfire style: I imagine this style to go more along the lines of all of the pilgrims gathering around one night on their boat overseas and telling their stories. I imagine some of their stories being told better than others and other of the pilgrims having more people listen in on their stories. I think this would also be a cool idea, because I imagine pilgrims telling stories to pass the time on their voyage to America.

Contest style: With using this style, I imagine there being a storytelling contest in town a couple months after the pilgrims arrived in America. I imagine a crowd gathering and whichever pilgrim tells the best story gets a cash prize! I think this would be a fun style to use for my project because the pilgrims know they are up against each other.

(CSI New York Poster source: Flickr)