Discuss/Evaluate Baba Brinkman's introduction to his Rap Canterbury Tales project. Does his work make Chaucer more accessible to a new generation or provide a better understanding of Chaucer? On the development of literature in Britain? Are Brinkman's translations any less "scholarly" than those you read in the Penguin Canterbury Tales? Share your thoughts on The Rap Canterbury Tales!
Due Monday 9/22
45 comments:
Baba Brinkman is truly an educated man, and his works do provide for a better understanding of Chaucer’s impact on British Literature. Originally, Baba Brinkman was a student who was doing a project comparing the two styles of rap and Chaucer’s poetry. This imaginative topic idea lead Baba Brinkman to create the Rap of The Canterbury Tales, and by doing this he educated people about early British literature while simultaneously entertaining and captivating his audience. Baba Brinkman managed to do the improbable; by recreating The Canterbury Tales in the style of rap, he reconciled awareness to classic literature with music that advocated rebellion against anything authoritative. In present-day America, young people show little interest in poetry from the 1300s; the language that was used then is difficult to understand. By creating a Rap rendition of The Canterbury Tales, Baba Brinkman acted as a translator. He facilitated the understanding of Chaucer’s texts by using “street” language that is well known among unruly teenagers. His introduction also provides excellent background information on the prologue of The Canterbury Tales, for he relates the characters reciting their stories with present day rap free styling. Also in his introduction, Baba Brinkman explains how Gutenberg creating the printing press leads to Chaucer’s style of poetry to become less popular. Overall, one must concede that Brinkman’s introduction was useful in providing background information about Chaucer’s written works.
It has been argued that Brinkman’s translations are not the most “scholarly” translations, but I believe this statement should be refuted. If one looks at Baba’s credentials, one will see that he has acquired both a B.A. with honors and an M.A. in Renaissance English Literatures. These facts erase many doubts that Baba Brinkman isn’t qualified to translate Chaucer’s texts. It should also be noted that just because Baba Brinkman chooses to Rap The Canterbury Tales, it doesn’t mean that his are translations are inaccurate. If anything, he should be acknowledged for attempting to educate people on the subject of classical literature while trying to be creative and entertaining. The arguments above refute the declaration that Baba’s translations are not scholarly and therefore invalid.
The Rap Cantebury tales, while certainly possessing its merits and points of interests, cannot ultimately be said to possess much academic value and significance in respect to illuminating Chaucer’s works. While the dedication of Brinkman to adapting the original middle English text into a rhyming format more consistent with mainstream modern expectations of and experience with such forms of poetry is commendable, the actual contributions Brinkman makes to actual understanding of Chaucer in the process of performing his translations are rather dubious. All Brinkman accomplishes with the actual Rap Canterbury tales is to transcribe the original work into a format that he believes will stimulate an appeal and convey itself in a style akin to what the original work should have produced in those to whom it would have been recited during Chaucer’s time. However, attitudes and perceptions change over periods of time, and different phrases, methods, and styles may assume different meanings over the passage of centuries. One cannot actually interrogate those whom might have experienced a recitation of Chaucer’s work during the period in which it was written, nor can one have a conversation with Chaucer himself on the matter, Different things have been emphasized and appreciated in different eras. While academia possess some fragments of primary source material from the era and has been able to approximate the attitudes and behaviors of various social groups as a result of anthropological investigation, a thorough and accurate knowledge of such matters (most importantly on the level of the individual and his outlooks) is simply not something that the modern world can possess. Indeed, Chaucer’s original work itself does not survive in modern hands. Thus, Brinkman’s attempts to interpret Chaucer’s work as to maximize its capacity to be conveyed through hip-hop and similar mediums and to therefore return the work’s original significance to modern audiences are not going to be without significant flaws. While any translation will invariably incorporate a degree of author subjectivity and selectivity in respect to arranging and filtering the material transcribed, Brinkman takes this to an extreme in his attempts to turn the Canterbury Tales into modern hip-hop material. For instance, he establishes in his introduction that in adapting of the Knight’s tale, he removed almost 2000 lines in the adaptation, eliminating a very significant portion of the tale. He indeed admits that, in order to make the stories comply with his vision, he was often forced to butcher significant amounts of Chaucer’s writing. While he has preserved the broad “narrative thrust” of the tales, he has otherwise removed vast amounts of Chaucer’s material. With so much of Chaucer’s material absent and with the fundamental rhyming structure of the Tales reworked for modern audiences, the Rap doesn’t really have much academic utility or relevance (in respect to the study of Chaucer and its work). Its sole potential contribution is in the reaction it might evoke in an audience through its recitation, which might potentially be used to extrapolate or indicate the way the original work was used and received in its day. However, given the aforementioned limitations in such a specific interpretation, the accuracy of Brinkman’s work in this respect is somewhat doubtful, to say the least. What a middle-class audience of the 21st century feels in respect to a heavily butchered, highly specialized, and partially re-envisioned translation of a 14th century work will probably be quite different from what members of an ancient, long-dead feudal aristocracy (the primary clients of poets) might have felt when presented with the original work. In short Brinkman’s work cannot be entirely relied upon to retain and convey the same essential messages and themes that Chaucer wished to emphasize.
Brinkman references the role that Chaucer played in establishing the foundations of the modern English language and in facilitating the rise to popularity of Iambic Pentameter/Tetrameter. However, Brinkman doesn’t actually contribute much to this knowledge with his work. The importance, influence, and nature of Chaucer’s work has been studied by numerous dedicated researchers and academics over the course of centuries. Brinkman’s introduction is a valuable source of information concerning these subjects to the uninitiated, but it isn’t something that couldn’t be found elsewhere. Most of the information he presents is not new- scholars have known of Chaucer’s role in developing English vernacular literature, integrating the lessons and lexicons of other languages, and popularizing certain poetic practices for quite some time. His comparisons to rap are interesting and well reasoned, but they don’t really have much to do with Chaucer’s influence on later literature and vernacular. Hip-hop, as Brinkman himself admits, arose independent of Chaucer’s direct influence. Brinkman’s work enables one to better appreciate the recurrence of certain trends and practices (lyrical duels, rhyming popular verse, etc.), but ultimately doesn’t contribute much to an overall understanding of Chaucer and his work. While the similarity in the situations presented in the Canterbury Tales and in modern Rap competitions is amusing, it isn’t terribly significant. Natural selection plays a role in every medium of entertainment in which the audience has a choice in what it will indulge itself in. Things like poetry, informal storytelling, and music (battles of the bands and the like) are naturally suited to spontaneous competitions, hence the existence of such practices, but any and every work competes with its peers in the eyes of the audience. While novelists and painters might not be suited to the kind of direct competition as present in a freestyle rap-off, they must still compete before and be judged by the consumers, with their popularity and renown being derived from their worth and charisma (just as in direct competition). All Brinkman achieves in his research is to assert the existence of a widely accepted and fundamental phenomenon while simultaneously noting that a broad genre of creative expression (rhyming poetry) can recur and be adapted across various cultural and historical lines (specifically Middle Ages England and the modern Hip-Hop scene, in Brinkman’s case). Ultimately, while Brinkman’s adaptation provides a unique variation on Chaucer’s tales and is potentially quite entertaining, it does not truly impart much of academic significance in respect to Chaucer.
Baba Brinkman’s The Rap Canterbury Tales is certainly a unique and captivating way of experiencing Chaucer. In my opinion, Brinkman’s translation provides a better understanding of Chaucer’s impact on British literature and should be considered scholarly work.
The format in which Chaucer originally wrote the Canterbury Tales was not seen as “scholarly” at his time; it was written in the vernacular. So I think it is unfair to deem Baba Brinkman’s rap translation as less valid. Just as the iambic pentameter of Chaucer’s work made the best impact on his audience, Baba’s rap can best captivate a twenty-first century audience. Brinkman thoroughly studied Chaucer, British literature, and hip-hop culture in order to accurately write the Rap Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer’s work would not have been considered “scholarly” at his time, it was not regarded until centuries later as a literary masterpiece. Hee intended his tales for people’s enjoyment, not to be praised by obscure academics.
We don’t have any originals copies of the Canterbury Tales written by Chaucer, even the Middle English versions may have been edited and tainted Chaucer’s original work. Just because Baba Brinkman translated Chaucer’s stories into a format not commonly used by scholars, rap, does not mean that his work should be considered any less scholarly than iambic pentameter.
It seems that brevity has grown more valuable to modern audiences than it was during Chaucer’s time. The first time the tales were translated there were about 80% less lines than the original and similarly when Brinkman translated them into rap there were 80% less lines than the previous translation. It would be a double standard to say that Brinkman’s translation is invalid because it has significantly less lines than Chaucer’s work if the first translation is considered scholarly because it retains iambic pentameter. Making the work more concise by cutting out superfluous details and descriptions does not sacrifice the work’s academic integrity.
By putting the Canterbury Tales into a style more accessible to contemporary audiences, Brinkman has placed the tales into context and deepened my understanding of Chaucer’s influence on British literature. He analyzed his usage of the vernacular, adaptation of foreign words into the English language, and specific poetic formats that portray how revolutionary Chaucer’s work was on British poetry and the English language in general.
The Canterbury Tales were meant to be experienced through oral storytelling, and Brinkman reinterprets them with this original purpose in mind. The Rap Canterbury Tales and the Middle English Canterbury Tales have both achieved the same purpose within their respective time periods; delectare et docere (to delight and to teach). Both Brinkman and Chaucer would have agreed that poetry should be enjoyable and accessible to the people, and after reading each of their works I believe both have achieved their purpose.
Baba Brinkman’s The Rap Canterbury Tales recreate Gregory Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales by essentially changing the language in which the stories were originally told based on the current time periods in which the stories were written: Middle English and rap. Although some believe that hip-hip and rap are not true forms of music, it is in fact a form of poetry, as was the original Canterbury Tales. For this reason, one can not state that Brinkman’s versions of these stories are any less scholarly than the original written by Chaucer. Brinkman’s knowledge of both hip-hop and The Canterbury Tales are clearly in depth as his educational background was extensive and his thesis “Competitive Poetics: A Comparison of Speaker/Audience Relationships in Hip-hop Lyrics and The Canterbury Tales” required him to study exactly what was necessary in order to educationally recreate the stories. It is possible, based on his success in duplicating Chaucer’s version, that Brinkman’s intelligence is comparable to that of Chaucer’s. Both Chaucer and Brinkman’s intentions were similar though the final products were very different. Both meant to educate the readers about the time period in which the stories were being told, but the main purpose was for the reader’s enjoyment. Neither cared what some people would criticize what they had written, as long as their main goals were achieved. Brinkman’s version also allows the stories to be told orally as was Chaucer’s intention, however, in modern times it is difficult to listen to the Middle English version due to the differences of that language with modern English. Since they were both successful in achieving their goals, it is impossible to state based on the time periods that Chaucer’s version was more scholarly that Brinkman’s.
Brinkman was also successful in increasing the understanding of Chaucer’s impact on the development of British Literature. Brinkman’s goal through recreating the stories was to resurrect the Canterbury Tales by putting them into a new language that young audiences would understand and enjoy. Young readers of Chaucer’s version are unable to appreciate the vast impact in which the stories had on society, however, with Brinkman’s version they can easily compare The Canterbury Tales with the time period in which they were written and the current time period. A student today of British literature will more easily understand how the Canterbury Tales connects with other novels they read from the time period since they will more enjoyably understand the themes and meanings of the stories. It is still important to be introduced to the original version; however, the rap version can only increase one’s understanding. Brinkman’s intelligence is clearly shown through the version he was able to create and his understanding of what students of the younger generations will enjoy and be educated by, a feat in which many teachers of the modern world can not accomplish due to the generation gap. His version should in no way be discredited due to his use of a fairly recent form of poetry compared to the archaic poetry used in Chaucer’s version, rather he should be applauded in his success of recreating one of the best pieces of literature from early western civilization.
Brinkman certainly provides an interesting introduction to his project “The Rap Canterbury Tales”. His translations of the classical pieces of literature to rap, slang, and hip-hop language definitely seem less “scholarly” than the translations we read over the summer. I found it very interesting to read that all of the Canterbury Tales are some form of a translation, because no pages have survived that were actually written during Chaucer’s lifetime. However less scholarly this form of translation may seem, Brinkman makes many convincing comparisons between poetry in Europe during Chaucer’s time and modern day rap and hip-hop. Although the idea of rap Canterbury Tales might seem ridiculous at first, Brinkman effectively compares the common cultural aspects of poetry and hip-hop. Both of them are a sort of oral tradition; poetry and story telling during Chaucer’s time were forms of entertainment, but were not usually recorded (as the printing press was not yet invented). Thus, the stories would survive almost strictly by word of mouth. Brinkman parallels this to freestyle raps, where the rapper makes up words to a beat on the spot as he goes along. He also compares the idea of audience feedback, how rappers will be told to stop by the audience if they are doing poorly at freestyle, just as in the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer is stopped while telling The Tale of Sir Thopas. These similarities convinced me that the idea of rap Canterbury Tales was not really less scholarly than any other translation, and actually quite fitting for the tales in regards to their cultural context.
I did find, however, that the introduction was very focused on comparing the rap and hip-hop culture of our time with the poetry and story telling culture during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Because it was so focused on this, I don’t think it really helped me look at the “big picture”, Chaucer’s impact on the development of literature in Britain.
Baba Brinkman’s adaptation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is one of great uniqueness and creativity. Reformatting the Canterbury Tales into a modern rap version has allowed for thousands of people who would not normally be interested in Middle English literature to better understand and appreciate the thoughts and ideas behind Chaucer and his work. One cannot question Brinkman’s knowledge in the fields of both the Canterbury Tales and the history of rap. After long studies of both fields he was able to discover many supposed parallels between Chaucer’s work and the work in the music genre of rap. Brinkman strongly felt that the development of rap could be connected and applied to the impact of Chaucer’s work on social development in Britain, believing that the two differed only through the time period they existed. To support his thesis Brinkman drew many parallels between the style in which the Canterbury Tales was written as well as the interactions between characters to the style of rap and rap competitions between MC’s. It was his idea to show the relations between Chaucer and modern rap to allow those who cannot fully grasp Middle English to obtain a stronger understanding of Chaucer’s work. However, as interesting as Brinkman’s work may be, his rap does very little in aiding one to understand the impact of Chaucer on the development of literature in Britain. In addition, his work is less scholarly than the works we have read over the summer.
Brinkman’s Rap Canterbury Tales is little more than the name implies; a modern rap version of Chaucer’s Middle English poetic work. It was Brinkman’s ultimate goal to create a literary body that would obtain the interest of a young audience by fitting it into a mold they were accustomed to and could understand, rap. Brinkman himself stated that his works do not coincide with those of Chaucer’s; in order to fit some of the tales in the Canterbury Tales to his rap structure, he was forced to exclude and greatly restructure a rather large portion of the original work. For example, roughly two thousand lines were omitted from the rap version of the Knight’s Tale so that it could be better framed as a rap song. As a result great deals of many of the tales are lost in the translation between Middle English to hip-hop, making their use to better understand Chaucer’s original work near non-existent. The fact that the work is translated itself makes it even more useless in trying to understand Chaucer’s work. Whenever a piece of literature is translated from one language or form of a language to another, there is always something lost in terms of the words used and mood of the literary piece. Modifying Chaucer’s Middle English poetry to hip-hop slang and grammar is a great alteration, one that drastically changes the feel for the stories told. One who listens to Brinkman’s work will gain an understanding of the message Chaucer was displaying, but will learn nothing in terms of the literary structure of his work. Combined with the fact that a great many of the original lines are missing from Brinkman’s work, it is clear that his rap does very little in allowing to one to gain an understanding of the Canterbury Tales. Brinkman himself pointed out that his works are designed to spark interest in Chaucer’s as opposed to emulating the man’s work. It is his wish that after his songs are listened to by his young audience, they will research further into Chaucer’s tales. However, if one was to read or listen to Brinkman’s work alone, they would gain very little understanding of the literary importance of Chaucer’s work to Britain.
The only portion of Brinkman’s studies and works that offer a decent contribution to understanding Chaucer’s work is his introduction. In his introduction, Brinkman makes many connections between the Canterbury Tales and the efforts of rap artists. Brinkman feels that the style in which the stories in the Canterbury Tales are written, specifically the structure and manner in which the characters interact, directly relates to the structure of rap songs and the competitive nature between rap artists today. In making these connections, Brinkman is trying to draw parallels between a medium young generations today understand and Chaucer’s innovations to British literature. His connections seem sound and after one reads the introduction they will most likely have at least a slightly better understanding of Chaucer’s work, making it a scholarly piece of work. However, Brinkman’s raps themselves are not scholarly in the fact that they are an incredibly altered version of the original work, differing in all but the manner in which they are written and the lessons of the story.
Baba Brinkman does not provide an outstanding view on Chaucer's effect on British writing. He seems to jump from rap back to knighting. He leaves out most of the middle. However his translations get rid of most of the riddle about what Chaucer would say to an audience today.
The majority of the introduction focuses on two things. The first, is the history and current state of hip-hop culture. It outlines how hip-hop evolved as a medium. It started simply with MCs saying words to beat, but eventually battles emerged to see whose rhymes were better when laid on the street. It was mostly underground and unknown. Everything about hip-hop soon was grown. It eventually was blown-up by corporations. However, the underground still exists in all of the nations of the world. In the underground new rappers spawn. Than they receive record deals and their songs get played from dusk to dawn. This is viewed in the underground as a sellout move. Now most of the songs that people think of as hip-hop is just material for consumption, aural slop.
The second concept in his writing is how Chaucer's stylistic word is meant not be read, but more to be heard. Chaucer took concepts from the Italians, and words from the French, and from storytelling that was classically English. How Chaucer truly had a wish, to see poetry become so great. However, he died and eighty years from that date the printing press came to existence. This took writings and placed them like an animal behind a fence. No longer were the pages heard but read. And this allowed the poets to speak when dead. However without hearing the sound something was missing on emotional ground. Poetry was a genre meant to be listened to. This is something the written word just can't do. So, the record, cd, mp3, fills the gap the the printing press made. Now one hears what the people have said.
Brinkman attempts to tie these concepts and make them one. In this way, he tries to make Chaucer fun. None of this outlined in details Chaucer's actual effect on Brit lit. However, it implies that there is something close knit in how the tides of writing ebb and flow. Currently hip-hop is where poetry will continue to go. In addition to all this, his interpretations are scholarly just as much as anyone else's is. One does not have to be scholarly to interpret. Often the simplest form is the best for it. This makes people welcome what normally would be considered too high bred. It helps people gain interest and feed there head. And if one believes to be scholarly one needs a degree, Brinkman has many, as one can clearly see. His credentials are impeccable and his rhymes can be blasted at a decibel that matches with rap men like Kanye and Fifty. Anyone can write and rhyme, but few could make it sound in time. And he has an argument for his topic that makes his ideas form such a strong thesis.
Brinkman, in all senses of the word, is passionate. And he is passionate about nothing more so than hip-hop, and Chaucer's novel. In all respects, it seems an odd pairing, but somehow Brinkman has found that happy medium between abstract and obscene comparison to create his work.
Overall, it is safe to say that Brinkman's piece is basically the "The Canterbury Tales" in layman’s terms. He has taken the medium hip-hop to provide a basis of which the general population can relate to. This gives more people an understanding of what Chaucer's writing was all about. Then, when seen in simplistic terms it is easy to see how he achieved a method in which would create understanding of Chaucer's impact of the development of literature in Britain. For example, his mention of "quitting" and its usage in hip-hop. After which he goes on to explain his theory of its use in Chaucer's work. This helps create understanding of the impact on British literature by relating fictional "free-styling" within Chaucer's work, to that of a present day art form. This leaves the reader with a higher understanding of what newfound rhetorical devices were mastered in Chaucer's work, and how it possibly led to other literature during the time period with similar writing styles.
Hip-hop is an art form known for its struggling artists waiting to make it big. It is common knowledge that many become well-known after starting from the humblest beginnings. Brinkman explains in his introduction that Chaucer has never been documented as a professional poet, which allows one to assume that his impact as an author was still important, whether or not he was published or paid for his work. This leaves the obvious conclusion that even during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it was still possible for literature in Britain to have an impact on its people and their surroundings.
In regard to how scholarly his translations were, it is illogical to assume that through translation a piece can become less knowledgeable then it originally was. Chaucer wrote in the language of the time period in which he lived, the vernacular of Britain at the time. Brinkman wrote the same material as Chaucer, and even with the language of our present day time period, hip-hop. Scholarly material is all relative. It does not depend on unnecessarily long words or complex sentences, it depends on the subject matter of which is being portrayed, and one would be hard-pressed to find more suitable material than "The Canterbury Tales".
"The Rap Canterbury Tales" is an excellent resource to turn to learn of the impact that Chaucer had on literature in Britain during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, well as an example of scholarly material. Brinkman did a wonderful job in portraying Chaucer's book proudly and with intelligence while still creating an enjoyable product.
Baba Brinkman’s rap Canterbury Tales is certainly a creative way to look at Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Brinkman got the idea to compare the Canterbury Tales to rap music for his thesis of a college paper he was writing. While it is not a conventional idea to compare great British literature to rap music, which many people do not approve of, it is very creative and unique.
In the introduction that Brinkman wrote about his rap Canterbury Tales he gives background information about himself. He talks about how he was studying British literature in college and wrote his thesis paper on how rap and the Canterbury Tales can be related to each other. He spent many months reaching the culture aspect of both hip-hop and British literature. For this reason he is able to explain how Chaucer was one of the first British writers to write in the form of iambic pentameter. Brinkman also mentions how it wasn’t until after his book was written that this style of writing was seen as acceptable. This helps allows you to see just how big of an influence Chaucer had on developing British literature. Also in the introduction Brinkman wrote about his Rap Canterbury Tales he discussed how Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales as a way to entertain people. He wanted people to tell the stories to each other and enjoy listening and sharing them. By writing them in the vernacular it was seen as being unscholarly, but this didn’t matter to him because his main goal was to entertain people. Brinkman then compares Chaucer work to rap music. He says that they are alike because rap music is written as a way to entertain the listeners just as Chaucer wrote his story to entertain his readers. Also many people today do not approve of rap music just as many people did not approve of the vernacular that the Canterbury Tales was written in. Both of these styles are also alike in that they both rhyme. Brinkman also focuses on how there is a connection between free style raping and early British literature. When free style rapping you need to be able to think on your feet so that the beat has both rhyme and rhythm to it. At the same time you also need to be able to entertain people. Traditional poetry was created for this same reason. The goal was to not only have it rhyme and catch people’s attention.
After reading Brinkman’s introduction of his rap Canterbury Tales I do not think that they are less scholarly than that of the Canterbury Tales that we read over the summer. Brinkman’s raps are just a translation of the Canterbury Tales that are writing in Middle English, which are a translation of the original copy that has pages missing from it. Brinkman had spent months researching Chaucer and hip-hop so that when he wrote his translation he would be culturally correct with both and include all the important aspects of Chaucer’s novel. If the translations that are written in Middle English are considered to be scholarly, the new translation that Brinkman did in rap should also be considered scholarly. All he did was put it into a form that would be easier for more of the population to understand it today. Since the English language has involved in such a way that people no longer speak in the same manor that they did during Chaucer time, it is harder for them to understand what Chaucer has written at time. When people of the twenty first century, especially students go to read Chaucer’s work they are so focused on the fact that the book is written in Middle English that it is all they worry about. Instead of enjoying the story and reading it, they become to preoccupied with trying to interpret what Chaucer is trying to say and put it in a context that they can understand it. When they listen to Brinkman’s rap translation they are able to listen to the stories and understand them. This allows them to fully enjoy the stories allowing them to get the most out of the Canterbury Tales, which is what Chaucer wanted. I think that for this reason, along with all the research he did, makes Brinkman’s rap Canterbury Tales are scholarly, as well as entertaining.
The Rap Canterbury Tales by Baba Brinkman showcase the actual Canterbury Tales in a way that most people wouldn’t have thought to look at them. The parallels that are seen between rap and the actual writing are astounding. The ideas that Brinkman brings about in his research are ones that are revolutionary, they compare British Literature in the early centuries to something that is much more modern, rap music. Rap music is like putting poetry to a beat; it gets a point across in a much more entertaining way, while still maintaining the integrity of what the artist is trying to get across. That is one of the main points that Brinkman includes in his prologue to the Rap Canterbury Tales. He believes that Chaucer was a rap artist for his time. The ideas that he presents in the original version of the story is very similar to what happens to a rap artist when he or she first starts out. Brinkman’s ideas bring the mechanics of rhyming into account when he discusses the different types of rhymes that are used in the book and rap music and how similar they are to each other. His dissection of rap music makes me think about how much work is actually put into the rhymes that the artists create, it seems so easy when you listen to it.
I believe that the Brinkman’s work creates a better understanding of how Chaucer impacted British Literature. His picking apart of Chaucer’s work puts rhyme schemes and the style of writing that he used into a different perspective. I wasn’t expecting to hear that the way that Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales (iambic pentameter) was not a common writing style during this period since it is very common now. It seems to me that Chaucer sets the precedent for poets to come because he uses very modern styles in his writing. Brinkman’s writings show that Chaucer was taking ideas from other cultures that were using other prose styles and it shows the development of the vernacular. Chaucer took words from other languages and adapted them to his poetry since there were no dictionaries of the vernacular. Many of the words that are used today were created by poets who needed a word to rhyme with something else and the meaning that was used in the poem usually became the permanent meaning of the word. Chaucer seems to have left a huge mark on British Literature during his time period and the ones preceding it.
I don’t believe that his translations are any less scholarly because he still keeps the integrity of the novel but updates it to a point that it is more interesting for teenagers to read. The Middle English that the book was originally written in is much more difficult to understand so an updated version that is even fun to read is a thing that the book really needs. I think that it is necessary for people to read The Canterbury Tales since it is such an amazing representation of poetry from that time period. The Rap Canterbury Tales would still give the reader the experience of reading the book but it would be presented in a way that is different from what Chaucer originally wrote. I believe that Baba Brinkman is a revolutionary writer who makes a somewhat difficult to understand story so much more enjoyable and easy to read.
The Rap Canterbury Tales was certainly a unique and interesting work. Baba Brinkman’s creative approach to adapting Chaucer’s original work into a rap form was brilliant and inspired. Brinkman studied both rap and Chaucer’s work in depth before translating it into rap. Brinkman’s main focus of his introduction is on the comparison of rap and hip-hop to classic poetry and text. His introduction mostly helps in the understanding of his views on hip-hop, and how he came up with his translation.
His rap form of The Canterbury Tales made it possible for a larger audience to be exposed to classic British literature. It was not surprising to learn that Brinkman had been an artist and fan of rap, as well as studying the original Canterbury Tales closely. His Rap Canterbury Tales display his dedication to his translation. However, because it is in a rap form, regardless of actual validity, it does certainly feel less scholarly. Whether it is or not is open to debate, and will continue to be as long as the works survive. I believe that it cannot be ruled definitively as less scholarly due to the fact that there were none of the original pages from Chaucer surviving to this day, and that everything is in fact a translation of the original. Because there is no original work surviving, it cannot be shown whether or not Brinkman’s interpretation is anymore valid than text versions. So I would come to the conclusion that Brinkman’s version of the Canterbury Tales is just as scholarly as those which we have already read.
In using a style more appealing to modern audiences, Brinkman has promoted the influence of Chaucer on British literature. He was certainly able to revive the Canterbury Tales into a format that was actually entertaining to a majority of people. Because of this, a larger amount of people can be exposed to the classic work of Chaucer, and follow through with the learning of it, rather than giving up on an extensively written book, which they might find boring. Modern audiences can connect to Brinkman’s version due to the format that he presents it in, as compared to the text based format that we read over the summer which many modern readers would not find appealing. The text form was appealing to the audience at that time, and today Brinkman’s form is appealing to modern audiences, therefore both achieved their purpose by displaying Chaucer’s work in an acceptable form for the time.
Baba Brinkman chose an interesting medium into which, translate some of history’s most well known stories. His work to convert stories of the Canterbury Tales into a medium used and often heard today as his own personal attempt to have the stories listened to again. This is actually a major focus of his in his introduction. The fact that many people assume that the Canterbury Tales are instantly going to be boring based on the fact that the books are written in Middle English or even just translated from it is a focal point of his during the introduction. The creation of these songs seem to be based more on proving the stories are still just as funny or thought-proving as they were before rather than proving any particular literary standpoint. With that being said, Brinkman did not really demonstrate a better understanding of Chaucer’s impact on the development of British literature but he did succeed in finding an effective way of getting the stories told like they were back when they were first written. A major point of Brinkman’s introduction is devoted to comparing how the development of Chaucer’s stories are similar to how rap and hip-hop tracks are created and viewed today. He does bring up many good points on the subject of how rap and the structure of Chaucer’s writing are similar but that does not really discuss how British literature evolves. The problem is that literature soon split from the form of classic rhyming structures into more of a blank prose bases which was soon popularized by playwrights like Shakespeare and Marlow. It was this new form of prose that dominated and evolved through most of the history of British literature not the classic rhyming schemes used by Chaucer. While Brinkman does mention blank prose a bit in his introduction he spends most of that time discussing why most classic authors of the time resented it and then its inevitable upheaval of the old ways. His introduction was based more along the lines of showing how the classic rhyming schemes survived throughout the ages to evolve into what we know it as today, rap and hip-hop; in certain respects. This is shown in the introduction with his discussion on the negative effects of written poetry to the sort of rebirth with the invention of records and other devices that made it possible to listen to sound recordings. Even when he was discussing poetry gradually being written he never concentrated on the literature of the poetry. The evolution of poetry being discussed at that point was based more on the consequences of not being delivered orally rather than the literature of what was actually being written. Brinkman’s point was never to have demonstrated why British literature evolved as it did, rather he wanted to prove that the Canterbury Tales were a forefather to the modern hip-hop movement and how that style ended up surviving the ages.
In accordance to the belief that his translations are less scholarly than the other translations of the works we read I would agree that his translations may lack a bit but they defiantly are not less scholarly. It is true that his translations of these classic tales are not in a medium that most academics would want to associate with but his reasoning behind the translations are not only intelligent but helpful. While there was a lot of information lost in translation when he brought the Tales into rap form the general idea is still there and the meanings of the stories defiantly aren’t lost. A driving force for Brinkman in the creation of these translations was to find a way to show youth nowadays that just because the story is old doesn’t mean it is not interesting. His cause is a true one, in that many people today dismiss the stories as boring because they are tough to read and they end up completely missing the wonderful plots because they are too preoccupied with their preconceived notions. There was a lot of effort evident in the translations that would speak to the common folk of today and in that he was successful. I, personally, am not a fan of this medium however I could clearly hear the work and effort to have the Tales not only sound good but to have the same meanings as before. The changes and adaptations were not made randomly to allow the Tales to sound better as raps but had actual meaning put behind them making them just about as scholarly as those before.
The Canterbury Tales is and will remain one of the most hard to comprehend (Middle English version) along with any of Charles Dickens’ work. Baba Brinkman remolded Chaucer’s tales into an enjoyable rap version geared toward the digital generation so that as a society, we will not lose our worldliness. At the moment, I am disgusted with our society’s culture which is depleting and our appreciation for diversity is almost gone. Brinkman is doing our society a favor by creating The Rap Canterbury Tales so that people will understand Chaucer’s message, yet receive it in another artistic outlet. His introduction offers background information on the prologue of The Canterbury Tales and he, along with Chaucer, was able to shape the characters speech and satirize their manners in what was to become popular literature among people of all different walks of life. The introduction was an excellent jumping point about Brinkman’s point of view on the tales and how he felt about his contribution to literature development in Britian and how it really was, most of it was focused evaluating the rap culture with the poetry culture during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Chaucer was a radical at the time because The Canterbury Tales was a novel that had humanistic and secular themes that no book had before it. That analysis coinscides with Brinkman because no artist would take a risk in creating phat beats about The Canterbury Tales because contemporaries rap about baby momma drama and money. As well in his introduction, Baba Brinkman explains how Gutenberg’s creations of the printing press lead to Chaucer’s style of poetry to become less trendy, so Baba did him a favor and brought it back. Brinkman’s translations of the tales is very scholarly because he totally pulled off taking the unappealing Middle English tale and bringing it to the 21st century, so I have total respect for him. Also Baba has excellent credentials, so the issue brought up by critics about the Rap Canterbury Tales being less scholarly and bringing no light to British Literature would be shot down because Baba attained a B.A. with honors and an M.A. in Renaissance English Literature, which shows devotion because I don’t know anyone who would devote their life to and enjoy it, so this man has drive to bring understanding to children of all ages concerning The Canterbury Tales, because by itself the book is a daunting task to read and follow. Because Baba Brinkman chooses to Rap The Canterbury Tales, doesn’t mean that his rendition is imprecise, but is a work of art and should be acknowledged for educating people about classical literature while being cool.
Baba Brinkman’s rap version of The Canterbury Tales does not make it any less scholarly as Chaucer’s original English version. Baba Brinkman is obviously educated in the Canterbury Tales as any other person who studies The Canterbury Tales but he took the original text and made it more enjoyable and evidently simpler to understand. Personally, The Canterbury Tales can get a bit too boring, but the way Baba Brinkman puts it into a more teenage friendly rap version intrigues us as students and keeps our attention. Baba Brinkman merely just made the tale more up to our generation, similar to when Chaucer wrote it, that was the way people spoke the language so it was easier for them to understand as their native language. Now that we’re in the 21st century, our way of English differs from the 1300s. It doesn’t make it less valid, because if you think about it you have to consider the generation and the time period. The text and the style may be different, but the whole concept and the story itself is the same. If rap is enjoyable to us, then it isn’t a bad thing to us it to educate us since it is the same purpose. Just because it is in a rap translation doesn’t make it any less accurate then the other scholar’s translations. The methods used to teach or to read may be different, but the purpose is the same.
His rap translations may not be the most “scholarly” translations there are, but the statement that it’s less “scholarly” isn’t correct either. If you consider his credentials, he’s clearly educated in the Renaissance literature and thus makes him fully qualified as a scholar of The Canterbury Tales.
Through the “Rap Canterbury Tales”, Baba Brinkman has made a seemingly nonexistent connection between 14th century writing of Chaucer and the hip-hop culture of the 21st century, and for that he must be applauded. By finding this deep connection of rhyme and rhythm between the poetry written by Chaucer in “The Canterbury Tales” and the same rhyme and rhythm in rap songs today he has been able to connect with an audience that would have difficulty reading Chaucer’s original work. He made “The Canterbury Tales” new again and fresh so that a new audience could understand and connect with what is going on without having to dissect the poetry of the late 14th Century. He makes the Canterbury Tales accessible to a younger generation and makes it relevant to what they know. This in itself does provide an understanding of Chaucer’s impact on British Literature.
With Brinkman’s translation of “The Canterbury Tales,” to his own work, “The Rap Canterbury Tales,” I believe that they are not any less scholarly that the original works. Baba Brinkman kept the integrity of the works that Chaucer had written and changed them to a Rap that is more attainable for the generations of today. Brinkman did admit to leaving out many of the detailed descriptions in the original work by Chaucer so the story would fit his own vision of how the story should work. Just because Brinkman changed the poetry to Rap it does not make it any less scholarly. In fact changing the original poetry to a rap shows the deep connection that poetry and story telling in the 14th Century has compared to the rap and hip-hop culture of today. Brinkman compares how the lines of poetry that Chaucer wrote were different from many works at the time since the lines avoided ending on the rhyme so it did not become repetitive. This also is present in rap since they try to not end lines at the end of sentences to the work can flow and not become choppy. Brinkman shows that the writing styles were in fact different but at the same time give the same meanings and themes to the readers.
Brinkman truly did an excellent job of turning the work of Chaucer into a modern day masterpiece for today’s generation. He shows that even though Chaucer wrote in the 14th Century people today can connect to the same writing in a different form. Thought we don’t know what the important details were to the people of the 14th century it doesn’t mean that people can’t still access some of the underlying themes today. Brinkman’s works are not at all less scholarly and his introduction to his “Rap Canterbury Tales” gives us great insight into the impact Chaucer had on literature.
Through his Rap Canterbury Tales, Baba Brinkman created a source of entertainment for those interested in rap and Chaucer’s notable works. That is not to say that a person has to have interest in one area to be able to like the other. There’s no argument that some people do not like rap; this is the same for Chaucer’s work. However, Brinkman’s goal was not to satisfy both groups. Essentially, he wanted to translate The Canterbury Tales and share his performances in which he used hip hop as a medium. Overall, his live audience can say that he accomplished his goal. Brinkman has been performing since 2003, and reviews have been generous since then.
While the audience will definitely enjoy Brinkman’s unique performance, they will never get to say that they had read Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Fact is, when one decides to take a piece of work—a translated piece of work, no less—and turn it into a live rap/hip-hop performance, its tone and its significance will most definitely be different from its original. Chaucer himself had admitted that he was not a performer—or a rapper. Though his work was perfectly capable of being performed out loud, he expected his audience to read his work and not see it. Both Chaucer and Brinkman used different mediums. Chaucer chose words meant to be seen; Brinkman chooses words meant to be heard. While the latter’s performance allows the readers to see and react quickly, they will probably not be able to retain it and truly appreciate it. What they understand is Brinkman’s translation and interpretation—not Chaucer’s words. The Canterbury Tales takes a while to set in, yes, but since readers must slow down and analyze the collection of stories, they are able to piece together Chaucer’s writing. The introduction did not dive in depth into the impact of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales on Britain; he mostly talks about rap and how it had developed from poetry throughout the years. In some aspects, Brinkman does prove something by his project: Chaucer’s work can withstand time—meaning, that no matter the time period in which it is read, the reader will still be able to understand the context. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales was written in the 14th century, but Brinkman is able to translate it into language that people today could understand.
In his introduction, Brinkman shows readers the extent of his research in addition to his education on Middle Age literature. He proves his knowledge on Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales by closely analyzing its structural language and noting the similarities to today’s hip hop. Brinkman discusses the tone of The Canterbury Tales and the way it can be easily transformed into a performance. It is obvious that Brinkman had not just decided to take Chaucer’s work and change it; he was aware of the controversy and so, worked to find support for what he was doing.
Brinkman’s translations are undeniably different, but are they exactly less “scholarly” than The Canterbury Tales? Truth be told, Chaucer’s version is not as scholarly as many people believe. Essentially, beneath all of his prose of seemingly sophisticated allusions and imagery, is crude and bawdy language. “The Miller’s Tale”, for example, is one of the most famous out of Chaucer’s story collection because of its mentions of sex and lust. This definitely differs from Chaucer’s other stories of courtly love. Brinkman only made his sexual innuendos more apparent by his performance. Overall, the readers get to decide what can be considered “scholarly” and less than “scholarly” character. If one was to examine the presentation of the work, Chaucer would appear more scholarly. The message of his work, however, is almost equivalent to Brinkman’s. It is the impact of the work that matters the most. What both formats succeed in doing is acknowledging the audience. Chaucer expected his work to be read and wanted to reveal the hypocrisy of society in his writing. Brinkman considered Chaucer as an influence but also noted that the popularity of the 14th century writer was waning. In launching The Rap Canterbury Tales, he revived the classical stories so that people will continue to understand and remember what Chaucer was and is fundamentally saying.
Baba Brinkman’s work succeeds in entertaining the audience and can or cannot be considered scholarly. Though he was able to translate some of Chaucer’s work into modern language, Brinkman is not able to describe the impact of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales on Britain. What matters the most is that though Chaucer had written the collections of stories from the 14 century, it’s still possible to read it and understand it. Brinkman made it easier for readers by creating a performance out of it and leaving many people happy and a bit more tuned to arts.
Baba Brinkman’s work of the Rap Canterbury Tales does provide a better understanding of Chaucer’s impact, because as Brinkman said, it gives the work the same energy to the audience today as the original did for people of that time. The language is obviously very different today than it was 500+ years ago. The original Canterbury Tales would therefore be barely understandable to a reader today, never mind humorous or thrilling as it was during the time it was written. By the time the reader realized what was happening in a story like the Miller’s Tale, it would have become more frustrating than humorous. In the Knight’s Tale, I would imagine that much of the lengthy descriptions would be so boring and difficult to read that an audience today would tune it out or find another book. Chaucer’s intention of writing The Canterbury Tales, however, was exactly the opposite – to entertain and excite people. This is exactly what Brinkman has successfully done by translating the story into a language and style that almost everyone today can enjoy.
I don’t believe that Brinkman’s translation is any less scholarly than the original, although it is written very differently. Chaucer did use a very intricate pattern of words to describe the story in a couplet rhyme scheme, and had an expanded vocabulary of words in his story. However, I believe Brinkman’s work was on the same level as Chaucer; his rap follows the same rhyme scheme, he doesn’t just stick to a basic vocabulary that would be easy to rhyme, and the message/major themes of the story are just as evident as in Chaucer’s writing. In a way, Brinkman’s translation is almost more “scholarly” than Chacuer’s because he had the more difficult task of taking a story already written, and translating it to modern language and style without detracting from the overall effects that were originally intended.
In creating the “Rap Canterbury Tales,” hip hop artist Baba Brinkman made Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, bane of English students everywhere, accessible to a general audience. His rapped version of the tales certainly made the stories more appealing to a population more interested in television than literature, teenagers especially. However, his work, especially his introduction to the “Rap Canterbury Tales” also provides a better understanding of the impact of Chaucer on British literature.
In his introduction, Baba Brinkman draws some interesting parallels between hip hop and Chaucer. As he pointed out, both hip hop and storytelling during Chaucer’s time are and were oral media. Stories were meant to be recited, not written down and printed as a book. At the same time, these stories, like rap, were meant to be enjoyed by a general audience, not studied by scholars. Therefore, bringing The Canterbury Tales to this popular, oral, form of storytelling brings new insight to Chaucer’s intention in writing the Tales. They focus on the stories’ entertainment value, probably what Chaucer would have wanted, rather than on their educational value of being written in Middle English, etc. In his introduction, Brinkman also makes some interesting points about Chaucer’s contributions to English poetry. He highlights Chaucer’s introduction of rhymed iambic pentameter to the English vernacular, and how Chaucer began to transition English poetry from a spoken to a written medium. However, these points on Chaucer’s impact on the development of English literature are not apparent in the raps themselves.
This still leaves the question, however, of whether Baba Brinkman’s translations of the Canterbury tales have the same scholarly value as other, written translations. In regard to the language that Brinkman uses, I think that his translation is just as scholarly as other translations. Both change the language from the original Middle English, so something is lost in both versions. In fact, I think that Brinkman’s use of slang and modern expressions is truer to the work than some of the more “scholarly” translations. Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales to entertain, and Baba Brinkman’s translation reflects that more. Also, Chaucer did make ample use of sex and violence to achieve his goal of entertainment, and Baba’s interpretation embraces that, instead of shying away from it the way that other translations do. However, it is true that something is also lost in Brinkman’s interpretation of the Tales. In adapting the Tales to hip hop, Brinkman greatly abridged the stories, sometimes by a factor of 80%. Obviously, in abridging the tales, a great deal of depth and quality was lost.
However, overall, Baba Brinkman’s “The Rap Canterbury Tales” gave some fascinating insights into Chaucer’s intent in writing his famous book. In many ways, his oral recitation of the Tales is truer to Chaucer than written, “scholarly” translations.
It seems as though Baba Brinkman’s main goal in creating the Rap Canterbury Tales was to reintroduce Chaucer’s stories and ideas to a new generation that would never even think about listening to a Middle-English oratory. Brinkman did not bring up anything new in his rap, such as a possible deviation from what the average scholar had deduced from the original texts. Therefore, when one asks, did Brinkman provide a better understanding of the impact of Chaucer on the development of literature in Britain, the answer is no and yes. The answer is no because most educated scholars that deeply studied The Canterbury Tales would extract the same or similar themes from the text. However, the answer is also yes because of the audience to which the rap was written for. Brinkman wrote the rap in order expose a much younger audience to Chaucer’s stories. He translated The Canterbury Tales and performed it in such a way that the new audience would not only understand, but enjoy Chaucer’s works in a way that would be virtually impossible if they simply read a modern translation of the texts. Chaucer created his oratories to be entertaining yet insightful to his audiences. He did create such stories so they could be torn apart and studied by scholars to be understood. With such a deviation between Middle-English and modern English, reciting the original texts to almost any audience would be pointless. With a modern translation to bring back the entertainment element Chaucer intended for, the themes of life, love, happiness, and fun can once again be felt and learned by any audience (which in this case would be the younger generation who grew up on rap and hip-hop).
With such a genius way to present such a seemingly outdated topic, it is impossible to say that the translations are any less “scholarly.” When one studies a text, he or she looks to extract the major points that the author was trying to emphasize. Brinkman worked endless hours studying the main themes and points to The Canterbury Tales and incorporated them into his own works. One can learn just as much as, if not more (depending on the age group) from Brinkman’s translations than any other version of Chaucer’s works, therefore making his translations just as “scholarly” as any others.
Baba Brinkman is a brilliant man. Taking the Canterbury Tales and making a rap out of it was a genius idea. If a teenager was asked to read the Canterbury Tales today, there would be a good chance that he or she would not find it very entertaining or maybe even bearable to read. In this day and age, many people are not concerned with 14th century literature and spend many hours a day listening to music or watching television. This imaginative way of presenting a topic that could be rather dull to a modern day teenager is perfect. It combines the entertaining aspect of music and rap with knowledge from British literature. In a way, Brinkman acted like a translator. He was able to take the old English style of poetry and twist it so young people living in the 21st century could understand and take in.
Chaucer’s work was not exactly seen as “scholarly” during his time. He was writing for people’s entertainment, not necessarily for being recognized academically. Now, scholars see his work as a literary masterpiece. The same could be said for Brinkman’s rap version of the Canterbury Tales. Though the style that he presents the rap version of the Canterbury Tales isn’t exactly popular in literature today doesn’t mean that his work isn’t in any way less scholarly or invalid. Brinkman’s style could actually be quite entertaining and useful for learning and knowledge about Chaucer and medieval England as well.
During the late fourteenth to fifteenth centuries, one could safely assume that Geoffrey Chaucer was esteemed as a man who was breaking modern conventions with his edgy writing style. He was seen as someone whose work brought entertainment to a new level, someone who knew how to stimulate a reader’s interests. Place a Middle English translation of the Canterbury Tales in front of the average twenty first century history student however and entertainment will, more than likely not, be the last thing the reader considers it as.
Baba Brinkman’s translation of the Canterbury Tales into the twenty first century vernacular, so to speak, allows readers to look past the seemingly foreign language Chaucer uses and to appreciate the ingenuity of the various tales. Baba Brinkman’s translation of Chaucer’s original text into the Rap Canterbury Tales is no less scholarly than any other translation from the original Middle English text. The Canterbury Tales have been preserved in manuscripts since the fifteenth century but there are no surviving pages written by Chaucer’s own hand. When a historian takes this into account, every edition written thereafter must be seen as potentially changed, altered, or misprinted. The Canterbury Tales itself can be seen as a translation as Chaucer had adapted poets such as Petrarch and Ovid to Middle English, the popular vernacular. Rap, though narrowly seen as a corrupting influence, fills the same social niche as live story telling performances did back in Chaucer’s day. As Baba Brinkman simply put it, “if Shakespeare is poetry, then rap is poetry.” Both Shakespearean plays and Chaucer’s Tales were not seen as “scholarly” nor valued as literature during their lifetimes, having been written in the vernacular and seen more as popular entertainment. Though the so called “original” Canterbury Tales should be consulted to take away the full impact of Chaucer’s work, the Rap Canterbury Tales cannot be seen as any less scholarly than other translations popularly read today.
Within the introduction, the extent of Baba Brinkman’s musical and historical research as well as his educational credentials clearly prove him qualified for creating a plausible translation of Chaucer’s work. He proves himself unquestionably well researched both in the fields of rap culture and old English by analyzing Chaucer’s structural language and noting its similarities to modern day rap. With a B.A., an M.A. in Renaissance English Literatures, and a thesis arguing the “Competitive Poetics: A Comparison of Speaker/Audience Relationships in Hip-hop Lyrics and The Canterbury Tales,” Baba Brinkman can undoubtedly be seen to have spent a substantial time researching this topic in a manner worthy of recreating it.
Baba Brinkman’s work provides a better understanding of the impact of Chaucer on not only the development of British literature but on the development of literature as a whole. There are many techniques that poets use to refine their rhyming practice, many of which can be traced back to Chaucer, “the first great rhyme technician in English.” It was Chaucer who rediscovered iambic pentameter from Italian writers such as Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio and adapted it to Middle English, replacing the once commonly used tetrameter. Chaucer additionally assigned audience feedback and competition central roles in The Canterbury Tales, after storytelling passed from specialized minstrels into the hands of anyone who cared to participate. This process carried the possibility of washing out poetry into irrelevance, while also creating the potential of expanding and restoring it. Within The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer additionally laid out poetry’s future role in society, live competitive events controlled by audience feedback, with rhymed narrative verse, giving a voice to people of all walks of life. As Brinkman states, “Hip-hop could hardly be a more perfect fulfillment of Chaucer’s vision.” Additionally, Chaucer added certain words to the English vocabulary. “Experience” for example appeared for the first time in English as a rhyme in Chaucer’s poetry. The meaning we associate with the word “experience” is partially associated to the way Chaucer used it in his work.
Despite the unavoidable chuckle and the corresponding skepticism one feels when introduced to the concept of Rap Canterbury Tales, I have come to the conclusion that this translation is as valid as any other. Through his research and innovation, Baba Brinkman has created a means by which our generation can appreciate the works of Chaucer and better understand the impact he had on the development of literature.
Baba Brinkman is both clever and informative at the same time. He uses his talent of rapping to make The Canterbury Tales more amusing and attainable for the young audiences. He lures the young generation in by using his unique style of presenting the tales that may have lost their authenticity since they were written quite a long time ago. He used the rap of The Canterbury Tales to teach his audiences about premature British Literature yet entertaining them at the same time. Many people today, are reluctant read the old literature due to the heavy language that was used at the time. They find it difficult to get into. Through his raps he fascinated people and became a “translator” of the Canterbury Tales. According to me, Baba Brinkman provides a comprehensive and a captivating technique to understand Chaucer.
Chaucer’s work was also not considered “scholarly” when he first wrote the Tales. He was criticized at the time and his work was not regarded after a long time after his death. The Canterbury Tales today is considered one of his greatest master pieces. He never expected it to be accepted by all the respected scholars, he had written them for the middle class and for their enjoyment. He never wrote the tales to gain critical acclaim from the scholars. He wrote them for people to enjoy his tales and have a pleasurable read. Chaucer’s work would have become invisible and disappeared if translators like Baba Brinkman had not stepped up and made an attempt to keep their work alive. Even though Baba Brinkman admits to removing an immense amount of the lines from the tales, the tales still had their impact and made people from our generation interested in his work. He put the Canterbury Tales in a style that is more relatable to our society today. His motives were clear and clean, he wanted people of our age and even younger than us to learn about Chaucer and he found a witty method and an exceptional way to do so. In my opinion Chaucer’s version was not being appreciated the way it should have been and it was losing its’ charm since it was written such a long time ago. Baba Brinkman took this as a challenge and exceeded beyond imaginable. He was instantly recognized all around and considered one of the newest and most impressive talents. His translations are no less “scholarly” than those I have read. Just because he used rhythm and style to catch the attention of his audiences does not make him any less scholarly than the other poets and writers. His work has helped many people realize the importance of British Literature and the entertainment that can be found in it. Thanks to Baba Brinkman the Canterbury Tales will never become just another collection of stories found on the shelves of a public library catching dust.
Baba Brinkman is many things. He is an English scholar with a BA and MA in Medieval and Renaissance literature, poet, and free stylist rap enthusiast, but of everything, he likes to make connections to the past. Brinkman wrote a translation of Chaucer’s classic The Canterbury Tales in a very interesting and creative rap dialect. In this introduction to Brinkman’s unorthodox work, he writes about how he found the correlation between his interests in hip-hop and Chaucer’s work, and exactly how he feels about the current hip hop society comparing Chaucer to different rappers such as DMX. The purpose of this writing is clear: to give a new perspective and exposure to Chaucer’s work and to try to view it from the equivalent type of entertainment in our time, but his success is rather nebulous.
Brinkman’s work does very little to provide a better understanding of Chaucer’s work, and only to a non scholarly crowd. His idea that Chaucer created this modern type of writing and popularized his style way ahead of his time has been studied for centuries. Scholars have well known the significance of Chaucer’s writing and the popularization of his poetic style. Maybe to the average American who did not study British literature in particular, this might be new information, but Brinkman truly does not offer any new insight to Chaucer’s time. Yes, this whole new rap culture is somewhat similar to the literary culture in feudal England, but the connection is not nearly large enough. And yes Chaucer did write in the vernacular as hip hop artist write in their own urban dialect. But ultimately, Brinkman fails to mention up many things about rap culture that is so different from readers in England: one of the main points being the primarily the audience. Today’s rap audience is literally anyone, and especially prevalent (as shown in the film 8 Mile) poorer urban society. While in England, realistically only the upper class clergy and the nobles were literate. That is a very big difference in social status of the audience, and thus without the usage of mass media and commercial popular culture, comparing these two types of work’s reception and relevancy in its time is very difficult. Also, there has always been competition in any form of literature or music. Brinkman may have noticed a pattern in human behavior that we like to be better than one another at skilled hobby, but he doesn’t do much more than entertain.
Brinkman’s texts are in fact a lot less scholarly than those I’ve read. I am not saying this because I am trying to reduce his credibility in translating old English into modern rap culture, but because ultimately, a translation is supposed to stay true to the text and actual events, not just the themes. Brinkman edited over 2000 lines out of his text so it fits his work, and although he is trying to recreate the vernacular effect Chaucer had, it will undoubtedly fail. This is because the vernacular of Chaucer’s feudal time is very different from the vernacular of today’s hip hop culture. For example, there is little influence of the Church today on art and music, but in Chaucer’s time, that seems to be the main and only factor. Also one cannot cite Brinkman’s translation, and say that it is a credible source of insight to this time period; it just is not a realistic translation.Truly, Brinkman just amuses the new reader with poorly drawn parallels, and shows few similarities between modern rap culture and 14th Century England, but does not change the way Chaucer is viewed by the scholars at all.
Baba Brinkman is truly a unique, passionate, and talented man who goes into more depth in researching his topic than possibly any other writer I have ever come across. The introduction to his “Rap Canterbury Tales,” covers an extensive history of modern day hip-hop culture, as well as comparisons to an extensive analysis of poetry during Chaucer’s time. Brinkman’s work for the most part does not provide a better understanding of the impact of Chaucer on the development of literature in Britain, but it effectively presents the history and basics of rap and poetry, and the similarities that exist between them. Though he does write how Chaucer’s idea of poetry/story telling competitions through oral tradition were quite popular and important at the time, he does not provide many strong examples of other writers in Britain who branched off of Chaucer’s style and set it at the forefront of British literature. In fact, Brinkman even writes of the disappearance of Chaucer’s witty lyricism and overall atmosphere of literature after the invention of the printing press. It is quite evident however, that this was not his main purpose in writing the introduction to his “Rap Canterbury Tales.” He simply wanted to show the reader or listener what inspired him to write a more modern and comprehensible version of the “Canterbury Tales,” that would mimic the excitement of story telling in the 1300’s. He also goes great lengths describing the relation between Chaucer’s tales and hip-hop, including everything from free style battles (storytelling contests), MCs (the Host), and audience feedback (quiting). Of course, it is evident that actually seeing Brinkman perform his “Rap Canterbury Tales” would illustrate to the listener the great fervor that people felt towards literature in the 14th century through storytelling, and how a similar feeling exists towards modern day hip-hop.
Though it was a necessity that Brinkman translate the Old English sentences of the original “Canterbury Tales” to the much more simple and acceptable youth slang of today, I still do not think that makes his work any less “scholarly” than those we have read. Primarily, one can not doubt that Brinkman is a highly researched and credible source for knowledge on Chaucer, poetry, and modern hip-hop culture. His “Rap Canterbury Tales,” in effect provide the same information, atmosphere, and messages of Chaucer’s tales, with the only acceptation being an adaptation to the listeners. In his notes, he even states that there are actually no surviving pages of the “Canterbury Tales” written during Chaucer’s time, so the edition one might consider more scholarly than the “Rap Canterbury Tales,” may be just as much of a translation.
Baba Brinkman’s introduction to his translation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, The Rap Canterbury Tales, provides a comprehensive analysis of Chaucer’s poetry. Brinkman’s Rap Canterbury Tales was his adaptation of Chaucer’s work for his English honors thesis. Brinkman’s translation of the Canterbury Tales in the modern day medium of rap is fitting for our day in age. It was a creative way to translate this 14th century piece of literature into a form that people who might normally not be interested in Chaucer’s poetry, to find an interest in it since it is in the form of hip-hop which is popular today.
Baba’s translation allows for an easier interpretation because it is in a form that is commonly used in our world today. The original text of the Canterbury Tales was written in the poetic from of iambic pentameter, which to a young audience today might be considered boring or uninteresting. By using rap, which can be considered a more modern from of poetry, this translation appeals to the younger generation of our time. This gives people a better understanding of what Chaucer’s writing was all about. Brinkman’s introduction parallels the workings of underground rap battles to that of the competition in The Canterbury Tales. Brinkman states that The Canterbury Tales was meant to be read out loud to a live audience, just as rap is read aloud and even free styled sometimes to the audience. Rap and Chaucer’s poetry also share the same aspect that it is based on rhyme and rhythm, which mark the difference between poetry and prose. In this way Brinkman’s Rap Canterbury Tales are our modern day equivalence to Chaucer’s poetry of the 14th century, for they both share many similar attributes of poetry yet just both are written in the vernacular of their time. Brinkman’s introduction proves that Chaucer’s poetry influenced the development of literature in Britain for he write in the vernacular and in poetry that was meant to be read aloud, uncommon for the time, and yet afterwards many more pieces of literature were starting to be written in the same style.
During the time in which The Canterbury Tales were written Chaucer’s poetry was considered to not be “scholarly” for it was written in the vernacular as well as in iambic pentameter which was out of the ordinary for that time period. Most literature of the time was written by the clergy and was likely to be records for the church. Therefore it is unfair to say that a rap adaptation, which is somewhat of a controversial medium of our time, is less scholarly for when the Tales were first written they also were written in a medium that was not really considered scholarly. For now scholars all agree that Chaucer’s work was of literary mastery for his time. Because he took an outdated form of literature and updated it to a more modern style, I consider Baba’s work to be scholarly because the themes of the Tales are still included in his new adaptation. For how can a translation that states exactly what was written before claim to be scholarly when it was basically the same as was written before. Therefore I believe it is invalid to say that Brinkman’s work is less scholarly because one can gain just as much knowledge from his rap version of The Canterbury Tales as one can learn from the translation of the Tales in iambic pentameter.
Baba Brinkman's ability to connect Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century Canterbury Tales to the modern style of rap is astonishing. It is a connection that I never would have thought possible, yet his argument had me completely convinced. He clearly demonstrates how Chaucer was the inspiration for people that were hundreds of years ahead of his time. I find the connection to be really clever and actually quite logical after reading his introduction. He shows how the modern freestyle battles that occur today are tremendously similar to the poetry competitions that took place in Chaucer's time. The amount of research that Brinkman put into this project is fascinating and demonstrates how Chaucer had a major impact on the development of British Literature. I found it astounding that he was able to connect lines from current rap songs by popular artists, such as Eminem, to lines written by Chaucer. Obviously the meanings of the lines are not the same but the way the lines were constructed such as using iambic pentameter or the rhyme scheme are similar.
When I first heard of "The Rap Canterbury Tales" I assumed that it was either a spoof on the real Canterbury Tales or just a way to get the people of our time to actually listen to them. I soon came to realize that "The Rap Canterbury Tales" are no less scholarly than the original version of The Canterbury Tales, they just suit the people of our time better. Its important to realize that back in Chaucer's time, poetry was to the people of that time, as rap is to the people of this time. People did not envy, let alone accept Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales during his lifetime, it wasn’t until years later that they were deemed a masterpiece just as rap is often frowned upon by many people, especially those who are older, of our time. Though connecting the two seems implausible, in reality it is quite sensible. The Rap Canterbury Tales doesn’t change the meanings of the stories nor any of the themes or plots, it is simply just conveying them in a different style. This style captivates the people of our time because it is a style that we are not only familiar with, but also enjoy, versus the Canterbury Tales which is no longer easily understood. This proves The Rap Canterbury Tales to be no less scholarly than the original Canterbury Tales, but just produced in a more appealing form for the people of this time.
Baba Brinkman created a truly magnificent piece of work with his creative and modern translation of "The Canterbury Tales". Brinkman's desire to showcase "The Canterbury Tales" to a young audience led him to create the rap. The idea stemmed from the realization that "if Shakespeare is poetry, then rap is poetry". This first connection between early English poetry and the current musical poetry (rap) was one of many connections that Brinkman made. Such others can include a competitive aspect, which exists in both The Canterbury Tales and in rap/hip-hop today. Possibly the most obvious connection between the two styles of poetry is the entertainment value that both forms of poetry share. These new ideas, that of relating early British literature to the modern musical styles of today, have demonstrated a more in depth understanding of Chaucer's impact on the development of literature. His uses of the vernacular and tetrameter create a base for future poets and writers to further advance the English language and literature through time. Babe Brinkman's work does help provide this understanding by creating clear, concise connections between the styles of early British literature and that of today's modern musicians. By translating the words of Chaucer into a modernized version of the English language, it is easier to comprehend and analyze what was written so long ago.
Brinkman's translations can be seen as less "scholarly" based on the obvious fact that they are written in a language of music that is more easily understood by a newer generation. That is not to say though that his ideas were not scholarly because through this project, Brinkman brings the writings of early European literature to today's generation, and translating it so it can be much more easily understood by a younger and in some cases less educated audience. This in itself is scholarly, by having a generation focused not on the past, but the present, look back in history and recognize the connections. With this idea, it can create a more in depth focus on other works in history, to possibly note their contribution to today's generation.
Baba Brinkman’s introduction on his rapping Canterbury tales gives a good background and knowledge of his project and its goals. He tells us how he came across a very interesting and rational idea of relating modern hip-hop to old English poetry. He brings up good points of comparing the rhyming of modern rap compare to the rhyme schemes of old English poems. The idea that these forms of verbal expression are a lot similar to each other than that of modern free verse poetry. I often hear people stating that there is a lack of skill when it comes to modern poetry along the lines of not putting the piece to any rhyme scheme at all. Now I am not going to say that today’s poets are any less skilled than modern poets, but that they express their literary skill in a different manner than those poets of the renaissance. However the way that the thoughts and “pieces” of rap are expressed they hold a much greater similarity to old English poetry in at lease the sense of format. As Brinkman points out they both share a similar “use of structured language.” Brinkman also gives a good reason to setting the Canterbury tales to rap. He points out a number of brilliant similarities between the two. Starting with the fact that both the Canterbury tales and rap are forms of entertainment. But this entertainment is more importantly a test of skill between those tell the stories just like to rappers battling. Also the idea that those telling the Canterbury tales had to at least come up with a choice of tales that was flexible if not improvised on the spot in order to make personal attacks at another or “quitting.” This is a common idea of free style rap battling. Brinkman is clearly giving a good background and information in his choice and work. He is clear an educated man and his introduction is quit a tome of knowledge on the Canterbury tales and their similarities of to modern rap as well as all old English to modern rap. It brings up good ideas and offers the reader an educated view as how to look at the Brinkman’s translation of the Canterbury tales in a rapping format.
However in all of Brinkman’s background knowledge he only barely touches upon Chaucer’s influence on the development of British literature. He states early off that it was an influence for future writers such as Shakespeare. He also tells us that Chaucer’s dialect of English was the later accepted form for the written standard. We also learnt that Chaucer gave rise to the iambic pentameter/tetrameter. However most of the background knowledge of what caused the poetry to become what it did in this time period was about the minstrels stopping poetry and only doing music and other outside sources, opposed to what Chaucer’ actual influence was.
On the matter of whether or not Brinkman’s translations can be considered scholarly or not is up to debate and opinion. In my personal opinion I do not think that Brinkman’s translations are scholarly. The reason for this is because Brinkman was trying to translate it in a manner that would closest resemble their effect on an audience in the way that they would have when they where originally told. Because of this, these translations are created in a completely different manner than that of a scholarly translation. Now in my opinion a scholarly translation is one that tries to translate the piece in as similar of written and literal fashion. So a scholarly translation would be what it would be written as if it where modern English, opposed to Brinkman whose translation is not trying to reproduce in a form that it would be written as now but in a way that best captures a reaction from the audience the same way as it would in its original telling in the fourteenth and fithteenth century. Both translations have their own values. The scholarly translation allows us to look at the original writing format and literary devices used at the time, while Brinkman’s translation lets us look into what entertainment was like at the time. This again is only my opinion and there can be a hundred valid answers to this question.
Though Baba Brinkman’s interpretation of The Cantebury Tales may not be commonly accepted as a scholarly work, it does correctly convey the tone of Chaucer as well as the relative impact of the work. Today, upon hearing “The Rap Cantebury Tales”, most would scoff or dismiss it as merely an attempt to appeal to contemporary readers who finds more in common with hip-hop than with Old English. Indeed, the said thing could be said of readers during Chaucer’s times. The fourteenth century was a period of change, reflected by the rising Renaissance and the end of the Black Death. A new accessibility came to poetry as the common people came to regard poets as performers who increasingly turned to oral poetry rather than written poetry. This is reflected by Chaucer’s usage of a story-telling contest as the basis of his story. All the stories in the Cabtebury Tales were told orally, all reflecting different aspects of the speaker’s character and background. There is a competition, as well, offered by the Host, to decide who tells the best story. This is much like the rap battles in hip hop culture, where different rappers come together to tell different stories with different perspectives. Like Chaucer had to appeal to the common people, rappers also have to appeal to the audience.
The language of rappers and Chaucer also had more similarities than expected. Chaucer used vernacular language instead of the commonly used and more accepted Latin. This was meant to appeal to the increasingly secular audience during the fourteenth century. To aristocrats and the clergy, this new form of language may seem vulgar compared to the more scholarly Latin of the time. Raps like Baba’s the Rape Cantebury Tales also use common, hip-hop language that might seem foreign to many of us today. The stories that Chaucer gathered for the Cantebury Tales were themselves stories told orally; Chaucer himself would only transfer them into writing. Thus, Brinkman’s interpretation of The Cantebury Tales may be closer to Chaucer’s original work than previously thought. They both were works scorned by a population of people, and they both appealed to a number of other people. The Cantebury Tales represented freedom from Catholic doctrines and rap itself represents a free form of expression to tell a form of truth through unique usage of rhymes and words.
Thus, it cannot be said that The Rap Cantebury Tales is any less scholarly than the translated version of it from Old English to contemporary English. Both are merely interpretations by the translator or rapper of the original Cantebury Tales. It could even be said that the Rap Cantebury Tales represents the impact of the original even better than the translated versions in contemporary English. Brinkman’s style puts the original Cantebury tales into perspective to modern readers and has provided a deepening understanding of the true impact and influence of Chaucer. Brinkman, like Chaucer, made poetry accessible and enjoyable for the most common readers. During Chaucer’s time, vernacular English was not viewed as the “acceptable” way of expression, but now, it is viewed as the standard of language. The same could be said of rap language. While it could be seen as less than scholarly to our eyes, it has many elements of literature that someday could turn rap into a respected form of expression, much like Chaucer’s poems. Brinkman’s extensive knowledge of Chaucer and the Cantebury Tales has brought us a unique form of learning. By “changing” the conventional version of the Tales, Brinkman has made students excided again and has, once again, continued the oral traditions of Chaucer’s Tales.
After reading the introduction to Baba Brinkman's "The Rap Canterbury Tales", I was impressed by the level of understanding he brings about Chaucer's impact on modern poetry. He has taken a subject that interests him and written a surprisingly thorough and intelligent dissertation of how Chaucer was the precursor of modern hip hop. Through the reading of this introduction, we gain valuable insight into the evolution of poetry and learn a great deal about Chaucer's purposes and objectives in creating this work. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a great literary masterpiece that has stood the test of time, but over the years it has become increasingly the realm of learned scholars and less a work widely enjoyed by the public. This work by Baba Brinkman succeeds in creating an adaptation of the Canterbury Tales that is more compatible with modern conventions. It makes an effort to preserve much of the artistry and storytelling of the original, while using less outdated conventions and being streamlined to gain better storytelling appeal and conform more to modern conventions. Brinkman's work can be viewed as a well-done piece of creative literature, that provides much insight into the original. From reading the introduction, all this can be gleaned. Baba provides
references to the original Chaucer in his introduction, really illustrating the need for a translation in the modern vernacular. Baba Brinkman also provides extensive background on the subject, explaining how Chaucer's influence led to an evolution of poetry through the centuries, finally reaching its current pinnacle in hip-hop. He cites examples of lyrics of rap songs in elaborating on its poetical development. He also elaborates on how he got the idea for this project, and put it into motion. All of this greatly aids the development of understanding on Chaucer's impact on British Literature. However, despite contentions that Brinkman's translations are not the most "scholarly", there is a wealth of evidence to the contrary. First, Brinkman is undoubtedly qualified to analyze this subject, as the possessor of multiple English and Literature degrees. As he says in the introduction, he has ensured that his translations are as correct and accurate as possible, by cross-referencing multiple translations of the Canterbury Tales. Admittedly, some material had to be left out to ensure the best possible flow of his translation, but this was done sparingly and as carefully as possible so as not to undermine the validity of the translation. Thus, without a doubt, this is a qualified, scholarly translation of the Canterbury Tales that is well set up in a well-written and revealing introduction that provides extensive background and explanation on Chaucer's impact.
Baba Brinkman’s “The Rap Canterbury Tales” was an interesting and creative way to present Chaucer’s literature. Despite the fact that Chaucer was known as the “father of English poetry,” many of his works can be seen today as being uninteresting and outdated to some students. However, Brinkman’s imaginative new way of presenting Chaucer’s stories helps today’s readers to further understand the importance of these stories. This more modern way of presenting these different stereotypes and morality tales help readers to fully appreciate Chaucer’s involvement in the development of British literature.
Although many people will argue that Baba Brinkman’s translations are less scholarly than those of Chaucer, I must say that I strongly disagree. Despite the fact that Brinkman presents Chaucer’s ideas in a completely unique way, he does not lose any of the literary or historical importance of his essential ideas and morals. Brinkman explains that he chose to present these ideas in this manner because Chaucer’s works were “expressions of rhymed narrative verse in the English language.” Rap can also be described as being rhymed narrative verses. Therefore, one can see that Chaucer was not making his works any “less scholarly” than Chaucer’s, instead he was simply organizing Chaucer’s central ideas in a way that is easier for individuals to understand. By organizing his ideas in this manner, Brinkman knew this would help to raise awareness to how important Chaucer was to the history of British Literature. Brinkman understood that many students are not very interested in the literature of the fourteenth century and he wanted to create a way to ensure that students would fully appreciate Chaucer’s outstanding literature.
However, one overused element of Brinkman’s introduction was the explanation of the history of the hip hop culture. I believe that Brinkman needed to focus more on the connection between Brinkman’s raps and Chaucer’s works in the beginning of the introduction instead of focusing solely on the culture and history of hip hop and rap. Despite this, Brinkman’s raps are incredibly useful in helping Chaucer’s readers to fully understand and appreciate the importance of his works.
Baba Brinkman’s is an interesting take on the classical Tales. He made an interesting and surprisingly true case in the connection of Chaucer’s work to modern day hip-hop/rap. This was something that I found to be really cool because I’m an avid fan of the hip-hop genre of music and to be able to see how it could have all started with a poet in the Middle Ages says a lot about how history is not always history. By this I mean that just because something happened in the past, does not mean it cannot happen now, or that it can be discounted because it happened so long ago. Clearly, Brinkman is trying to make this his point because part of the way he goes about learning about Chaucer is through learning about hip-hop artists and culture. As reader, the fact that Brinkman went so far as to learn how to rap and the similarities between current rap lyrics and Chaucer’s poetry says that he was really thought and did a good job of achieving his goal showing that rap may have originated in Europe. Brinkman’s project was also interesting because of how he was able to translate these old-English, “boring” stories into something that people today can understand and even relate to. This seemed to be a part that was contingent to the success of his study and he also did that really well.
Brinkman’s work does provide a better understanding of Chaucer’s impact, albeit it does not make it completely clear if others chose to follow it. Brinkman seemed to talk about what Chaucer noticed in the poets of his time and how they adapted the stories/poems they had learned to the time period they lived in. He also noted that Chaucer had to be aware that he would influence up-and-coming poets and his writings would be looked upon for guidance. This being noted, Brinkman helps the reader to realize that Chaucer was giving little, subtle hints to the future generation. For example, he that performs well will be beautifully rewarded by his audience. Basically, Chaucer wanted to ensure the next stream of poets knew what they had to do to keep the art form alive.
I would not say that Brinkman’s translations are any less “scholarly” than other things that I have read. Yes, they are presented in an unconventional and, what some would consider, “unscholarly” fashion but I do not think that makes them any less dignified or worth hearing than anything else. This is especially true because Brinkman’s translations are just that, translations. They are not a mockery of Chaucer in any way. They do not change the original meanings. They are simply Brinkman’s way of doing what Chaucer completely approved of, editing the stories that get passed down so that the present audience will be able to understand them. To call Brinkman’s efforts would not be fair to him or Chaucer.
Baba Brinkman’s reinterpretation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s masterpiece The Canterbury Tales is certainly an intriguing take on a classic sample of literature. He lays plain his inspiration, his investigation, his intentions, and his methodology in the decidedly lengthy introduction to his work. Whilst both his translation and his perspective are unquestionably atypical, it is plainly evident that many of his theses are not necessarily novel. However, this does not in any manner distract from the inescapable truth that this reworking of a cornerstone of English literature is in no respect scholastically inferior to any previous rendition in that it perfectly satisfies its purpose of occupying a recently-abandoned niche in entertainment at the time of the publication of each version.
With his “Rap Canterbury Tales”, Brinkman has taken an extremely uncommon approach to a revival of a literary classic. In explaining his point, Brinkman puts forth several noteworthy theses. It is important, nevertheless, to realize that many of Brinkman’s ideas are not revolutionary. Indeed, his discussion on the nature of rhythmic and rhyming patterns contains relatively little information hitherto unrevealed. Furthermore, the effect Chaucer had on modern literature has long since been known. Yet Brinkman does in fact succeed in presenting a heretofore veiled connection between the modern hip-hop movement and Chaucer’s stylistic conventions. His argument hinges on the theory that Chaucer’s works in the aspects both of content and of literary devices are similar to those of rap, not necessarily the basis thereof. And, because of the flamboyant parallels, they both appeal(ed) to their respective audiences for the very same reasons. Chaucer’s Tales was considered somewhat vulgar at the time of its publication, not very much unlike rap music nowadays. Rap music thrives on competition; just as The Canterbury Tales is naught more than an archaic “rap-battle” in and of itself, relying solely on the competitive nature of humans as the driving factor throughout. Rap is a progressive medium for entertainment just as Chaucer’s work was then. Brinkman makes all these points and others as he ties the two together. He, having therefore shed a different light on the previously-understood impacts of Chaucer on literature, augments, to a relatively modest degree (but augments nonetheless), an already vast collection of knowledge.
In terms of its academic properties, there is no reason whatsoever as to why Brinkman’s reiteration should be considered invalid or unfit. Brinkman only does exactly what The Canterbury Tales did in the first place over again. He uses a progressive (then-iambic pentameter, now-rap) medium to convey to audiences a series of stories to which they can effortlessly relate for the purpose of entertainment and possibly enlightenment. While for certain Brinkman’s interpretation of “The Knight’s Tale” is devoid of approximately eighty per cent of the original text, he raises the point that Boccaccio’s original episode was in fact five times longer than Chaucer’s even. And was not the general consensus of the class, upon discussion of the story, that there were unnecessary and obnoxiously long commentaries and descriptions of seemingly unimportant aspects of the tale throughout? Brinkman clearly has updated the tale to the modern audience then, if we view ourselves as that audience. Although the majority of the text itself is missing, the gist of the story and the message remains. Furthermore, Brinkman never outright claims that his version does justice to Chaucer’s. Quite alternatively, he adamantly suggests that the reader attempts to navigate the entirety of the tales in their original form (Middle English), going so far as to even suggest a particular volume and offer pronunciation advice. Clearly, he understands that his adaptation is not nearly on the same level as Chaucer’s at all. But, by his elaborate introduction and statement of purpose, he explains rather plainly that he never exactly meant to do so. Ultimately, the question is this: does Brinkman’s piece deliver the entire story? No. Does it render anew the mood, message, and stylistic ingenuity that Chaucer’s original accomplished, while simultaneously managing to maintain an entertaining and interesting atmosphere? Absolutely: it is presented in rhyme, using various stylistic nuances and idiosyncrasies that captivate the audience yet do not interrupt the overall message of the story. It is written in an innovative rhythm pattern, and uses both chiasmic and polysyllabic rhyming mechanisms. Furthermore, they are both intended to be heard, not read. This is perhaps the greatest likeness between them.
In summation, Brinkman supplies a new and somewhat peculiar take on Chaucer’s impact on literature both immediately and long-term, that, while comprehensive, is not necessarily all ground-breaking. His interpretation of The Canterbury Tales, on the other hand, is very original, but in no way whatsoever inferior to the first in terms of its impact on its audience and its manner of performance. Even the “real” version contains subject matter that reflects the modern attitude towards entertainment via the hip-hop movement and its audible form, rap music. “The Rap Canterbury Tales”, while in no sense of the word is perfect, it does what it was intended to do. For that, Baba Brinkman should at least be commended.
Babe Brinkman is truly just as much of a scholar as all of those who translated Chaucer’s work previously. He spent his years at college studying the works of Chaucer, and became an expert himself on the language and word use of Chaucer in his most famous piece, The Canterbury Tales. He relates his work on the “Tales” made him draw many parallels between his work with Chaucer and language used in rap music, an art form that he has lover for so long. He studied the work of rappers just as had did Chaucer. He discovered what made them “tick” if you will, and what made good rapper’s rhymes so effective. I found his most effective parallel was when he referred to the troupe of the “Tales” as the audience of a typical rap battle. When what was thought to be Chaucer told a bad story, the host quickly ended his piece. That, he found, was the same thing as if a bad rapper were to have put out a a bad rap, he would have quickly been booed of stage. The fact that something like that still rings true today is something that is incredible; how the same kinds of stories are being told just in a different light, and the way to stop a person form selling terrible rhymes is virtually the same.
His studies do give shed light on how he revolutionized British literature. After reading Brinkman’s intro, I even consider Chaucer to be the forefather of all literature that was to come. No one had used iambic pentameter until he used it in his Canterbury Tales. His use of this strayed away from the rhyme scheme used by the traditional minstrel that told poems at this time. Who is the most famous user of iambic pentameter? William Shakespeare. Chaucer influenced the great Shakespeare and his entire works using iambic pentameter. This truly shows how important Chaucer’s work in literature was to future British literature.
Is Brinkman less scholarly than he who translated The Canterbury Tales for our summer reading? I would say absolutely not. He translated the work into a way that most everyone would understand. I feel it is safe to say that anyone who listened to his rap Canterbury Tales piece would find that much easier to understand than that given in Old English. I even found that his rap “Tales” were even easier to understand than the reading over the summer. I enjoy listening to rap music. Though some may not even call it music, I feel it tells of the life of those who sing it. Brinkman gave me the same information that I received when I read over the summer. I even understood better than I did over the summer. The way he artistically told the tale as no one else had done was remarkable. What he did, in fact, was the same the thing the translator of our summer book did: change the text so that readers/listeners will understand it better. Because he has the background knowledge of Chaucer and has studied him in depth, I feel that what he did with his raps what the exact same thing.
Baba Brinkman is a very educated and intellectual man and he should be commended for his scholarly work regarding The Canterbury Tales. Essentially Brinkman turned The Canterbury Tales, a famous Renaissance novel written in Middle English, into a hip-hop performance in modern language. Some say that hip-hop and rap music are not forms of music, they say that it is just people talking to a beat. This couldn’t be further from the truth; hip-hop and rap are poetry, just as Chaucer’s original version was. So, therefore, I would say that Brinkman’s adaptation is not “less scholarly” and it does in fact give a better look as to how Chaucer impacted British Literature.
Brinkman’s variation of The Canterbury Tales not only translates the original text but also clarifies it for the masses. His version is engaging and entertaining and gives people in modern times the opportunity to enjoy and understand Chaucer’s original masterpiece. The messages Chaucer sends in The Canterbury Tales are still important and still carry meaning, this is why it is important that people understand the book and don’t just dismiss it as a boring and confusing novel. In the present-day it is highly unlikely that you will find kids that are interested in poetry from the 1300’s. This is why Baba’s translation into modern language is so important; it allows millions to enjoy the otherwise confusing tales. Brinkman also provides insight to why he chose only certain stories; he chose the ones that he thought would be interesting as live performance. And he also gives background as to why Chaucer was
Now some would argue that Brinkman’s The Rap Canterbury Tales are less “scholarly” then the original text, however I would disagree with this statement. If you look at Baba’s education you would see that he was highly educated in British literature and Renaissance Literature. This evidence alone automatically eliminates the idea the translation is unscholarly. He obviously understands what I being conveyed in the stories and he comprehends what is being written. He just uses modern language and “street lingo” to communicate the same messages. How is this less scholarly? The fact that Brinkman uses rap to express what is being said does not make The Rap Canterbury Tales incorrect or less scholarly then the original. Brinkman interprets the text with the same purpose that Chaucer had, so the same message and ideas are being portrayed. It is not like the original lessons are being “lost in translation”. I believe that Chaucer would support Brinkman’s decision to interpret the tales into modern language; it allows more people to understand and benefit from the original text. Chaucer was obviously a believer in poetry and poetic verse; the same ideas are portrayed in Baba’s edition, which makes them just as scholarly. The idea that Baba Brinkman’s The Rap Canterbury Tales are less “scholarly” then Chaucer’s original version are ridiculous and can be disproven with very little evidence. Brinkman did something almost impossible to do, convert a famous historical piece of literature into something modern day people can relate to and enjoy.
Baba Brinkman is a man with a very different perspective on The Canterbury Tales than a typical scholar, and his idea of a rap translation is certainly unique. No matter whether you approve or disapprove of rap music and the hip-hop culture, the mere presentation of clearly worded arguments comparing this new music to poetry of centuries past provokes thought. Despite coming from a white background, associated with classics like The Canterbury Tales, Brinkman accepted the hip-hop culture as his own at a relatively young age and immersed himself in its idiosyncrasies. To me, he has as much credibility to be an MC as anybody born and raised on a steady diet of rap. His roots may not be in his adopted poetic style, but he has taken the traditions of two cultures and turned them on their heads. Brinkman elevates rap by applying it to a traditionally elite subject, Middle English literature, and he also brings that traditionally elevated subject that intimidates many people, particularly students, in contemporary society, down to their level, and opened doors of accessibility. His translations are certainly less “scholarly” than typical ones, they are only 20% of the full text length of the original stories, but they maintain the essence of Chaucer’s tales. Much as Chaucer upset the status quo in his time by writing in the vernacular English and allowing the common people to read his stories, Brinkman upsets the status quo of traditional literature by integrating modern youth culture into Chaucer and making it available to a new generation of future scholars. As Chaucer ushered in the era of iambic pentameter in The Canterbury Tales, perhaps Brinkman is ushering in a new era of contemporary “translation” of classics into a language that youth can understand. I, for one, am a proponent of traditional scholarship and no great fan of rap music, but I can respect Brinkman’s efforts to widen the lens through which we view classic literature and wish him the best in his endeavors to create contemporary poetry out of ancient poetry.
Baba Brinkman’s Rap Canterbury Tales essentially portrays Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in a new light appealing to readers in society today. He took this classic novel and translated it from Middle English to a more modern hip hop style. Being an avid hip hop fan and a scholar he felt that the messages and stories portrayed in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales needed to be told and passed on to a younger generation with somewhat less of an appreciation for middle English style literature. He made connections with Chaucer’s language used and the language used in rap today. He found that the Canterbury Tales could be considered as the basis of rap music and an influence for modern hip hop culture. He then found it simple to change the tradition modern English language around to form the stories into modern poetic raps. After reading the introduction to the Rap Canterbury Tales by Baba Brinkman I realized just how much of an impact the works of Chaucer actually had on not only British literature through history but also many modern works of music and poetry. Geoffrey Chaucer’s use of Iambic Pentameter inspired many writers to do the same including William Shakespeare who could arguably be one of, if not, the most famous writer of all time. The language and character of the Canterbury Tales proved to be the basis of many art forms to come in British and world history.
It has also been said the works of Baba Brinkman are somewhat “unscholarly.” I strongly disagree with this statement. Brinkman’s extensive research and studies in Renaissance Arts proves that he grasps a strong understanding of the works of Chaucer. And after reading his introduction it is evident that he has extensive knowledge of hip hop culture and music. Although some refuse to call rap a form of music or poetry Brinkman shows many levels of common ground between artists of today’s hip hop world and the poetic language of Geoffrey Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales. To be honest there were parts in Chaucer’s original works of The Canterbury Tales when I understood little to none of the story because of the language used. After listening to Brinkman’s rap the stories seem to be clearer to me and I had a much easier time listening and understanding them in a modern language rather than the traditional Middle English. I find the way that he was able to grasp the stories in such a way that he did in Middle English and then translate them into a more modern form of writing was absolutely brilliant. His interpretation of this classic literary work helped revive the Canterbury Tales to a younger generation in a way that’s easy and enjoyable to understand.
The way Baba Brinkman portrays the Canterbury Tales is truly creative and intelligent. By translating Chaucer’s work into rap he accomplishes many things that the translation we read does not. In Brinkman’s studies of early British Literature he made a valuable connection to hip/hop and traditional English poetry, in that they are both live performances of vocal storytelling, which provide entertainment through lyrics. This is because a lot of British poetry’s main purpose was to entertain, and was only adopted as great literature when studied later. He used this connection to create his Rap Canterbury Tales, which is a much more effective way of communicating then it appears. By translating the Canterbury Tales into rap instead of simple prose, he reaches an audience of students that normally are uninterested in this type of poetry. But by translating it into creative rap lyrics that still put forth the same story line that Chaucer intended, students will be more interested, yet learning the necessary material. Also, by doing this he shows how great an impact Chaucer had on the development of British Literature. By translating the poetry into a more creative and exciting way for younger readers, he is attempting to equal the same entertainment that Chaucer’s stories brought to his time, so that readers can understand and better appreciate what effect Chaucer had on British Literature.
To say that Brinkman’s translations are any less scholarly then that of any others is simply not true. Baba Brinkman is clearly a well informed and bright man being very educated in British Literature. He is more than qualified to give an accurate interpretation of Chaucer’s work. In fact I find it more enlightening then any other translations because Brinkman has found a creative way to reach people who normally wouldn’t be interested in it, and show it to them in the entertaining way that Chaucer had once done. He should certainly not be condemned for a truly brilliant and effective means of interpreting the stories.
Baba Brinkman was able to take the 14th and 15th Century literature of the Canterbury Tales and construct it into a rap making it easier for the younger generations to relate to Middle Age literature. Throughout the introduction Brinkman explains the relationship between rap and hip-hop to the Middle Age poetry and literature. His analysis goes into great detail explaining how Chaucer’s tales are able to portray rap battles from the Middle Ages. For instance, Brinkman relates the tales as a clear analogy for storytelling contest which in the hip-hop culture is the phenomenon of the freestyle battle. Brinkman believes that Chaucer seemed to have designed his pilgrim storytelling contest around the exact same principles and guidelines that govern hip-hop’s underground. He feels that Chaucer used these devices for the exact same function they perform in hip-hop culture. Brinkman stats, “I would even argues that Chaucer anticipates hip-hop in a number of important ways, by dramatizing live performance and competition explicitly in his content, by drawing attention to different stylistic choices, and by raising questions about the poet’s place in society at large, all within the playful context of a fictional game.” Brinkman’s views on Chaucer’s Tale allow the younger generations influenced by hip hop music to relate better to the Canterbury Tales. Brinkman used the Rap Canterbury Tales as the perfect medium to deliver Chaucer’s message to a younger generation growing indifferent to the delights of archaic literature.
Brinkman’s introduction also gives the reader a deeper insight into Chaucer’s role as a poet during the Middle Ages. His introduction shows how the Canterbury Tales provided as entertainment during the 14th and 15th Centuries. Brinkman said, “Using Chaucer and Shakespeare as my models, I believe that poetry must be entertaining first, or have some quality that appeals to a live audience, before any of its other qualities become relevant; where there is no solace, there will be no sentence.”
Brinkman’s translations should not be considered less scholarly than other depictions of the tales because he spent years developing and creating his theories on Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales. He supplies his analysis with detailed and well developed arguments which are very convincing, and Brinkman used the same materials as every other scholar interested in explaining the Canterbury Tales for there is no existing original copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. I believe that Baba Brinkman illustrates his beliefs about The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer with convincing details and an uncomplicated method of relating to the classic literature.
Baba Brinkman’s Rap Canterbury Tales puts an interesting twist on a book that at first may not seem interesting for readers who don’t have the acquired taste needed to enjoy Chaucer’s particular style. With his clarifying introduction (that states his purpose for rapping the Canterbury Tales as being that there is a deep connection between the book and hip hop) Baba’s work is one of brilliance in that he easily connects two topics that are centuries apart and not generally associated to be similar. His work also provides a better understanding of the impact of Chaucer’s writing on the development of British Literature in a unique way. He parallels the development of English literature during the time of Chaucer to the development of hip hop in the 20th century. With hip hop music being as popular as it is, this comparison makes it easy for people (even those who could not grasp the principles Chaucer tried to portray as much as others when first reading The Canterbury Tales) to make connections and understand the impact it had on European society during that day and age. For example, Baba points out the most obvious similarity first to the reader in that the game played by the pilgrims was similar to a rap battle in that each player had to tell 2 stories (just as a rapper must improvise a rhyme), The host of the inn where the pilgrims met was similar to the judges seen at some rap battles, and that many of the stories were told in response or in an attempt to insult the previous story and its narrator, just as in a rap battle rappers often respond to the words of the previous rapper. By using the concept of the evolution of hip hop, which is almost common knowledge today, to a topic not so widely known (the evolution of british literature in relation to Chaucer’s works) he makes it easier for people to understand just how much of an impact Chaucer’s writing had during this time period. This comparison is so successful because the effects of hip hop music on our society can be seen clearly and on a day to day basis. Whether in your friend’s favorite playlist, a music video on MTV or on the radio in the car rap and hip hop is everywhere. Because people recognize that hip hop is a visibly influential force in our society, they can therefore more easily comprehend, through its comparison to The Canterbury Tales, the similar impact Chaucer’s writing had on the literature of the time period (just as hip hop had a large impact on the music of the 20th century).
Brinkman’s translations are no less scholarly than the translations made by those before him. Baba’s translations are just as accurate as those that were made before his however someone who does not fully read his work may prematurely judge it to be inaccurate. This may occur because they may first doubt the existence of the connection between hip hop and the evolution of British Literature during Chaucer’s time period. They may also think due to the simplicity in the language that Baba uses to translate Chaucer’s words that it would be less scholarly, due to the association people generally make being that writing with more complex wording is more accurate than writing with simple language (even though it may be saying the same thing). Despite these generalizations, Baba’s translations are no less accurate than those made before him. His choice to keep the Language simple when translating is an effective way to continue the pattern shown throughout his work: to give the people of the present a deeper comprehension of the impact and meaning of Chaucer’s writing. It is therefore clear that Baba’s translations are just as scholarly as translations before his, despite doubts by readers who may have merely scanned through his work; the language is only simplified to further the theme of true appreciation of the influence Chaucer’s writing had in Europe during his time.
I've got to say, some great responses!!!
I would say that The Rap Canterbury Tales does help with the understanding of Chaucer's work. It puts a classical and popular collection of short stories that were written in Middle English into a medium that even the youth today can connect to; rap. Our pop culture makes this adaptation of a classic fit in well and also would make the story appealing if it is done correctly and in a way that would inspire people to pick up this widely read book. His introduction also helps show us why he got the idea of translating the Canterbury Tales into a modern and popular way of telling a story. It also does help us understand Chaucer's impact on British Literature.
His translations of the text are just as "scholarly" as the edition that we read. Over the years there have been numerous translations of the text, mainly because those translations were what historians thought was meant by the earlier/original ones. His backround also helps ease those who are uncomfortable with a 'rap' version of the tales. He posesses a M.A. degree in medieval literature, so he is well knowledgeable and capable of translating medieval texts. For Baba Brinkman to have made his own translations and interpretations based on reasonable thought and education should make the rap considered worthy of praise and acknowledgment. His work truly does make one think about the Canterbury Tales in a different light from what is the commonality.
-alittle late but at first i didnt realize it was due on monday (sorry & wont happen again)
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