Jessica Brantley
Professor of English
+1 (203) 432-7663
Professor of English, Department Chair (on Leave)
Ph.D., UCLA, 2000
M. Phil., Cambridge University, 1994
A.B., Harvard University, 1992
I am interested in the cultures of medieval reading as they are preserved in manuscripts. In my first book, Reading in the Wilderness (Chicago 2007), I explore the format of a late-medieval miscellany to reveal surprising connections between the private reading of a meditative lyric and the public performance of civic drama. My current projects include a handbook of literary manuscript studies and a long-term study of the connections between late-medieval vernacular literature and the book of hours.