LEADER 04575nam 2200697Ia 450 001 9910787544203321 005 20220304022348.0 010 $a0-8122-0149-3 024 7 $a10.9783/9780812201499 035 $a(CKB)2670000000418179 035 $a(OCoLC)859162336 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10748394 035 $a(SSID)ssj0001053300 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11564398 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001053300 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)11103008 035 $a(PQKB)10018837 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse26097 035 $a(DE-B1597)449002 035 $a(OCoLC)979630903 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780812201499 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3442048 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10748394 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL682322 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3442048 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000418179 100 $a20070604d2008 ub 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aLooking inward$b[electronic resource] $edevotional reading and the private self in late medieval England /$fJennifer Bryan 210 $aPhiladelphia $cUniversity of Pennsylvania Press$dc2008 215 $a1 online resource (281 p.) 225 1 $aThe Middle Ages series 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 0 $a1-322-51040-7 311 0 $a0-8122-4048-0 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [241]-261) and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tA Note on Spelling and Punctuation --$tIntroduction --$tChapter 1. A Very Inward Man --$tChapter 2. Seeing a Difference: Mirrors and Texts --$tChapter 3. Private Passions --$tChapter 4. Profitable Sights: The Showings of Julian of Norwich --$tChapter 5. Hoccleve's Glasses --$tAfterward --$tNotes --$tWorks Cited --$tIndex --$tAcknowledgments 330 $a"You must see yourself." The exhortation was increasingly familiar to English men and women in the two centuries before the Reformation. They encountered it repeatedly in their devotional books, the popular guides to spiritual self-improvement that were reaching an ever-growing readership at the end of the Middle Ages. But what did it mean to see oneself? What was the nature of the self to be envisioned, and what eyes and mirrors were needed to see and know it properly? Looking Inward traces a complex network of answers to such questions, exploring how English readers between 1350 and 1550 learned to envision, examine, and change themselves in the mirrors of devotional literature. By all accounts, it was the most popular literature of the period. With literacy on the rise, an outpouring of translations and adaptations flowed across traditional boundaries between religious and lay, and between female and male, audiences. As forms of piety changed, as social categories became increasingly porous, and as the heart became an increasingly privileged and contested location, the growth of devotional reading created a crucial arena for the making of literate subjectivities. The models of private reading and self-reflection constructed therein would have important implications, not only for English spirituality, but for social, political, and poetic identities, up to the Reformation and beyond. In Looking Inward, Bryan examines a wide range of devotional and secular texts, from works by Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich, and Thomas Hoccleve to neglected translations like The Chastising of God's Children and The Pricking of Love. She explores the models of identification and imitation through which they sought to reach the inmost selves of their readers, and the scripts for spiritual desire that they offered for the cultivation of the heart. Illuminating the psychological paradigms at the heart of the genre, Bryan provides fresh insights into how late medieval men and women sought to know, labor in, and profit themselves by means of books. 410 0$aMiddle Ages series. 606 $aDevotional literature 606 $aIdentity (Philosophical concept) 606 $aSelf (Philosophy) 607 $aEngland$xReligious life and customs 610 $aLiterature. 610 $aMedieval and Renaissance Studies. 615 0$aDevotional literature. 615 0$aIdentity (Philosophical concept) 615 0$aSelf (Philosophy) 676 $a242.0942/0902 700 $aBryan$b Jennifer$01550540 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910787544203321 996 $aLooking inward$93809422 997 $aUNINA