1. I am grateful to all of the panelists at the two sessions on "Autobiographical Criticism
and Medieval Studies" at the 1998 Illinois Medieval Association conference. I owe special
debts to Ann Astell, who first made the connection between autobiographical interpretation and
"lectio divina"; to Bailey Young, who allowed me to organize these
"unorthodox" panels; and to Allen Frantzen, who provided astute and generous
commentary, as well as a terrific paper. My own contribution, "Dark Nights of the
Soul," would not have been possible without the support of numerous readers, especially
my husband, Mark Johnston.
2. Laurel Broughton,. "Becoming the Hazelnut: Teaching Julian of Norwich’s
Showings in the Face of One’s Mortality," paper delivered at the Thirty-Second
International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Mich., 1997.
3. Charlotte Newman Goldy, "Loss of Innocence: A Jewish Feminist Medievalist,"
paper delivered at the Thirty-Second International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo,
Mich., 1997.
4. Elizabeth Scala, "Effective and Affective Pieties," paper delivered at the
Thirty-Second International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Mich., 1997.
5. Catherine Belsey, Critical Practice (London, 1980), pp. 3-4.
6. Frances Murphy Zauhar, "Creative Voices: Women Reading and Women’s
Writing," in The Intimate Critique: Autobiographical Literary Criticism, ed. Diane
P. Freedman, Olivia Frey, and Frances Murphy Zauhar (Durham, N. C., 1993), p. 105.
7. Jean Leclerq, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God, trans. Catharine Misrahi
(New York, 1982), p. 15.
8. William of St. Thierry, The Golden Epistle: A Letter to the Brethren at Mont Dieu,
trans. Theodore Berkeley (Kalamazoo, Mich., 1977), p. 52.
page 107
9. Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs, trans. Killian Walsh
(Kalamazoo, Mich., 1981), 1. P 9.
10. H. Aram Veeser, "Introduction: The Case for Autobiographical Criticism," in
Confessions of the Critics, ed. H. Aram Veeser (New York, 1996), p. xiii.
