Dreams, Visions, and the Rhetoric of Authority.

Description: Considers the “authoritative weight" of dreams and visions in literature, focusing on their connections with other forms of prophetic or revelatory texts and offering a taxonomy of varieties. Includes chapters on the biblical Book of Daniel, Macrobius's "Commentary on the Dream of Scipio," Julian of Norwich's "Revelations of Love," and HF, with references to many other works. Argues that HF, in step with aspects of the growing skepticism of later fourteenth-century thought, ironically undercuts its own claims to authority.