While there has been a great deal of debate about enlarging the canon, less attention has been paid to how students respond to "new" literary figures such as Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich, or to how instructors should incorporate them into an already cramped literature survey course. Instructors must consider some questions that are probably not of concern to students, such as whether students find it as important to read texts authored by women as the instructor does in his or her critical role; whether their understanding of those women-authored texts changes their understanding of the course as a whole; or, whether one combination of texts from the Middle Ages is about the same as another. A study examined these questions by distributing in a medieval literature course a seven-question survey to be completed anonymously and for extra credit. Results showed both the men and the women of the class found the texts by women important to the success of the course. For instance, in response to the first question ("The typical way to present the ideas or values of this period would be to rely on readings from Chaucer and "Sir Gawain." Would this approach have been a good method in this course?"), nearly all answered no. The majority said they found the readings by women important and thought-provoking; nearly all students liked Margery Kempe's reading more than that of Julian of Norwich. (TB)