Chaucerian Insomnia and the Hospitality of Sleeplessness
in Late Medieval Dream Visions.

Published: Jennifer Jahner and Ingrid Nelson, eds. Gender, Poetry, and the Form of Thought in Later Medieval Literature: Essays in Honor of Elizabeth A. Robertson (Bethlehem, Pa.: Lehigh University Press, 2022), pp. 3-24.

Description: Articulates similarities and differences between dreaming and insomnia as devices in late medieval dream-vision prologues, following Emmanuel Levinas's suggestion that "the self-alienation experienced by the insomniac can be understood as a release from the confines of the singular mind," and focusing on how insomnia "provides the conditions necessary for ethical, consolatory engagement with others" in BD and in John Clanvowe's "Boke of Cupide," with comments on its use in Thomas Hoccleve's "Regiment of Princes."

Alternative Title: Gender, Poetry, and the Form of Thought in Later Medieval Literature