Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe

Laura Kalas (Swansea University)

Ed. by Jamie McKinstry, University of Durham
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1450

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Religion and Spirituality (any)
- Religious writing

Resources

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Introduction

The Book of Margery Kempe is the single work attributed to the late-medieval religious visionary, Margery Kempe (b.1373 – d. after 1438). The Book was rediscovered in 1934 after a long time in obscura, and has been subject to multiple scholarly interpretations, many of which have sought to pathologize Margery Kempe as ill or disordered due to the many descriptions of her noisy crying and collapsing during the visions and raptures that she experienced. As Sarah Salih has attested here, the Book side-lines Kempe’s family and domestic life in favour of a focus on her qualifications as a religious exemplum – as Salih puts it, it is an “autohagiography” (Salih, 2001). It is certainly a work of collaboration, engendered by Kempe’s dictation of her experiences to a

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5145 words

Citation: Kalas, Laura. "The Book of Margery Kempe". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 June 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6274, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe

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