Julian of Norwich - Medieval Imagination - Oakland Campus

Literary Criticism about Julian of Norwich

Jenkins, Eva. "Julian's Revelation o Love: A Web of Metaphor." A Companion to Julian of Norwich. Ed. Liz Herbert McAvoy. Campridge: D.S. Brewer, 2008. BV5095 J84 C6 2008
This article's close readings stress the natural, domestic objects that Julian dwells on and the "homeliness" God shows her--hazelnut, fish scales, raindrops, clothing; the familiar is made holy.
McAvoy, Liz Herbert. "The Motherhood Matrix in the Writing of Julian of Norwich." Authority and the Female Body in the Writings of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. Cambridge University Press, 2004. PR275 M9 H47 2004
Shows how the suffering of a mother's body in Julian's text echoes Christ's redemptive suffering. Focuses on Julian's sickroom as a womb and tomb and the hazelnut as a domestic object.
McAvoy, Liz Herbert. "Monstrous Masculinities in Julian of Norwich's A Revelation of Love and The Book of Margery Kempe." The Monstrous Middle Ages. Ed. Bettina Bildhauer and Robert Mills. University of Toronto Press, 2003. 55-74
Monstrousness is arguably predicted on the Other, on the inexplicable, the liminal which is what Julian and Margery were thought to be by ecclesiastical authorities. McAvoy argues that Julian and Margery reverse this stigma by representing masculine figures as monstrous--as especially aggressive, demonic characters--in their writing.
McAvoy, Liz Herbert. "'For We Be Doubel of God's Making:' Writing, Gender and the Body of Julian of Norwich." A Companion to Julian of Norwich. Ed. Liz Herbert McAvoy. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2008. BV5095 J84 C6 2008
Foregrounds Julian's body and female bodily experience as a representation of God as universal mother.
McEntire, Sandra. Ed. Julian Norwich: A Book of Essays. New York: Garland, 1998. Available through EZBorrow
Articles about female sensuality in Julian's visions of God including Alexandra Baratt's "In the Lowest Part of Our Need: Julian and Medieval Gynecological Writing: about medieval texts and religious texts.
Nowakowski, Denise. Julian of Norwich's Showings: From Vision to Book. Princeton University Press, 1994. BV4831 J83 B34
Argues that Julian contributes crucially to the transformational representations of Christ from heroic warrior on behalf of humanity to suffering redeemer by developing the metaphor of Christ as mother.
Robertson, Elizabeth. "Medieval Medical Views of Women and Female Sprirituality in Ancrene Wisse and Julian of Norwich's Showings." Feminist Approaches to the Body in Medieval Literature. Linda Lomperis and Sarah Stanbury, Eds. Philadelphia, University o
Gathers medieval medical views of women (especially of bodily fluids) to explain Julian's maternal visions of Christ.
Walker Bynum, Carolyn. Jesus as Mother: Studies in Spirituality of the High Middle Ages. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. Available online or BV4490 B961 1982.
Provides the precedents for Julian's notions of Christ as mother and for emotional piety. Offers fascinating medical history of how Medieval people understood breast mild and semen as a pure form of blood and thus drew a parallel between Christ's wounds and mother's milk. Looks at the feminization of spiritual language in Julian's era.
Watson, Nicholas. "Julian of Norwich," Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women's Writing. Ed. Carolyn Dinshaw and David Wallace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. PN682 W6 C36 2003
Introductory material about Julian and the argument that her approach contrasts with the pessimistic, fear-inducing bestselling theological texts for lay people of her time.

St. Julian's Church, Norwich (destroyed during World War II)

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Medieval Imagination - Oakland Campus: Julian of Norwich

Literary Criticism about Julian of Norwich

St. Julian's Church, Norwich (destroyed during World War II)

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