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Chapter 19 - Julian of Norwich

A Woman’s Vision, Book, and Readers

from V - Women as Authors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2023

Corinne Saunders
Affiliation:
Durham University
Diane Watt
Affiliation:
University of Surrey
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Summary

This essay explores the insights into female authorship offered by Julian of Norwichߣs Revelations of Divine Love. While we know very little of this figure, external evidence clearly identifies her as an anchoress celebrated for her holiness and spiritual guidance, and she is the first woman writer to use English who can be identified. Windeatt explores the distinctive witnesses to medieval womenߣs literary culture offered by the two extant texts of the Revelations. The shorter version, almost certainly earlier, is explicit about its female authorship, but reflects no particularly female approach. The longer version, by contrast, suppresses reference to female authorship but develops a uniquely woman-centred exposition of deep theological sophistication that suggests extensive learning. The afterlife of Julianߣs Revelations sustains the process of editing, as the short text finds its way into an anthology while excerpts of the Long Text are woven into a florilegium probably for nuns, whilst post-medieval communities of nuns ensure the survival of Julianߣs book.

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Chapter
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Women and Medieval Literary Culture
From the Early Middle Ages to the Fifteenth Century
, pp. 400 - 419
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

Further Reading

Baker, Denise N. (1994). Julian of Norwich’s Showings: From Vision to Book, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Beckwith, Sarah (1993). Christ’s Body: Identity, Culture and Society in Late Medieval Writings, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bynum, Caroline Walker (1982). Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages, Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erler, Mary J. (2002). Women, Reading, and Piety in Late Medieval England, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hill, Carole (2010). Women and Religion in Late Medieval Norwich, Woodbridge: Boydell Press.Google Scholar
Lamm, Julia A. (2019). God’s Kinde Love: Julian of Norwich’s Vernacular Theology of Grace, Freiburg: Herder and Herder.Google Scholar
McAvoy, Liz Herbert (2004). Authority and the Female Body in the Writings of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.Google Scholar
McAvoy, Liz Herbert, ed. (2008). A Companion to Julian of Norwich, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelstrop, Louise (2019). On Deification and Sacred Eloquence: Richard Rolle and Julian of Norwich, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Salih, Sarah, and Baker, Denise N., eds. (2009). Julian of Norwich’s Legacy: Medieval Mysticism and Post-Medieval Reception, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Turner, Denys (2011). Julian of Norwich, Theologian, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

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