Should Chaucer be ditched by universities?

THE absurd proposal by Leicester University to take the works of Geoffrey Chaucer off its English curriculum is the latest attempt to hold our country’s great history in contempt. Why do universities seem to hate our national heritage so much that they are intent on wiping it out? D. MORGAN, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. BANNING Chaucer is more than an act of cultural vandalism. It is the denial of our culture’s very existence.

ANDREW PAUL, Hythe, Kent. CHAUCER’S The Prioress’s Tale contains an anti-Semitic trope and repeats blood libels. It is highly unlikely Chaucer ever met a Jewish person as he was born 50 years after they has all been expelled. Ignorance breeds suspicion, which can lead to fear, hatred and violence. The only way to combat this is through education and debate. To do otherwise in the name of student protection is a facile attempt at control and censorship, and is doomed to fail.

DANIEL B. MYERS, Chigwell, Essex. I HOPE students wishing to study English literature find an alternative university with a more balanced syllabus that will be recognised by their future employers.

ALAN STACKMAN, Calne, Wilts. I STUDIED literature at university, but if I had gone to Leicester, would I have been introduced to the sublime poetry of the ‘pale, male and stale’ William Blake and Wilfred Owen? My degree course also included modules on Marxism, feminism and post-colonial studies, so was diverse. You go to university to have your horizons expanded, not narrowed.