Author Description

The latest volume of proceedings in the series initiated by Marion Glasscoe in 1980 shares with its predecessors a concentrated focus on the English mystical authors and the reception of their continental contemporaries in medieval England. At the same time, it bears witness to the range of disciplinary approaches - literary, historical, theological, art historical - which are currently bearing fruit in research on the medieval mystical tradition. The thirteen papers include new work on Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, the Cloud- author and the thirteenth-century anchoritic texts; texts connected with Syon Abbey and the Bridgettines; and the reception of Ruusbroec, Eckhart and the continental holy women in England. Among the themes explored are the spirituality of the religious orders; gender, class and mystical discourse; the theological precision of mystical language, and the translatio of the continental mystics into English cultural forms. Contributors: DENISE N. BAKER, ALEXANDRA BARRATT, SUSANNAH MARY CHEWNING, MARLEEN CRE, VASLERIE EDDEN, VINCENT GILLESPIE, DAVID GRIFFITH, A.ANNETTE GRISE, ANN M. HUTCHISON, LIZ HERBERT MCAVOY, KARL HEINZ STEINMETZ, ANNIE SUTHERLAND, NAOE KUKITA YOSHIKAWA. Dr E.A. JONES teaches in the Department of English at the University of Exeter.