ABSTRACT
I begin this essay with a personal reflection. I am honored to participate in a discussion of the present direction of literary theory. But my appearance in such a volume strikes me as being somewhat anomalous. My unease results from two rather different states of affairs. It comes about from the fact that I am a medievalist. It also arises from my methods, which are both historical and literary, and which are considered unorthodox by some of my colleagues.
