ABSTRACT
On the wall above my friend Ruth’s mantelshelf is an artifact that never fails to occupy a great deal of our interpretive attention each time my wife and I visit Ruth’s house. Contained within a rectangular wooden frame are three ceramic tiles, on each of which is depicted a number of characters from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Taken as a whole, the tiles show the entire company of pilgrims at the start of their journey. The gap-toothed Wife of Bath is there as is the impressive Knight, the attentive Squire, the scatological Miller and the vilified Pardoner, represented here as a figure already set at some remove from the main body of the group. From the expressions on each pilgrim’s face it is clear that in this company of strangers certain ‘natural’ affiliations are already making themselves manifest. The group looks tightly knit as everyone gathers expectantly at the beginning of their travels together, but closer inspection shows that small groups have already begun to form and that there are individuals who look as though they would be happier if left to their own devices. For me, the more I have stared at this artifact over time, the more it seems to me emblematic, not only of crucial aspects of my own journey as an English teacher and as a teacher of aspiring English teachers, but in particular emblematic of the larger journey of ‘subject English’ (Morgan, 1995) itself over the last 30 years.
