Description
Book SynopsisExplores the ways that women mystics sought to make their books into vehicles for the reader's spiritual transformation. Jessica Barr argues that the cognitive work of reading these texts was meant to stimulate intensely personal responses, and that the very materiality of the book can produce an intimate encounter with God.
Trade Review“Extremely compelling, and a useful way to look anew at some of the texts in the medieval devotional canon.
Intimate Reading makes a significant contribution to the study of women’s reading in the Middle Ages, hagiography studies, and the study of medieval devotional literature." —Jennifer N. Brown, Marymount Manhattan College
"Tying together a set of important aspects of medieval spiritual literature,
Intimate Reading makes an elegant contribution to medieval literary studies and feminist/queer studies." —Sylvain Piron, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
