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Chapter 20 - The Communities of The Book of Margery Kempe

from V - Women as Authors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2023

By
Anthony Bale
Edited by
Corinne Saunders  and
Diane Watt
Corinne Saunders
Affiliation:
Durham University
Diane Watt
Affiliation:
University of Surrey
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Summary

Anthony Baleߣs essay takes up recent scholarship on the historicity and production of The Book of Margery Kempe and on international influences on Kempeߣs piety and devotional practices. He argues that while the Book itself presents Kempe as an outsider, repeatedly repudiated by communities, and as disruptive, a ߢqueerߣ influence, collaboration is central to it. The essay recovers three earthly communities with which Kempe and her Book successfully engaged: Franciscan, Bridgettine, and monastic, considering questions of literacy, education, and cultural prestige. Kempeߣs experience in the Holy Land, Bale shows, was indebted to her integration into the Franciscan-led pilgrimage community, where she ultimately gained a high and holy reputation. The essay demonstrates that Bridgettine communities and patronage networks in Rome and at Syon also shaped Kempeߣs spiritual experience, while in Norfolk, a textual community including preachers and confessors formed around her. Following Kempeߣs death, manuscript annotation and printing history suggest a community of engaged readers who responded affectively to her spirituality.

Keywords

Margery Kempe,female authorshipscribesreligiouscommunitiesnetworkscollaborationintertexualitypatronagemanuscriptsprint culture
Type
Chapter
Information
Women and Medieval Literary Culture
From the Early Middle Ages to the Fifteenth Century
 , pp. 420 - 437
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

Further Reading

Bale, Anthony and Daniela, Giosuè (2021). A Women’s Network in Fifteenth-Century Rome: Margery Kempe Encounters ‘Margaret Florentyne’. In Kalas, Laura and Varnam, Laura, eds., Encountering The Book of Margery Kempe. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 185–204.Google Scholar
Bugyis, Katie (2014). Handling The Book of Margery Kempe. In Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn, Thompson, John, and Baechle, Sarah, eds., New Directions in Medieval Manuscript Studies and Reading Practices. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 138–58.Google Scholar
Craymer, Suzanne L. (1993). Margery Kempe’s Imitation of Mary Magdalene and the ‘Digby Plays’. Mystics Quarterly 19, 173–81.Google Scholar
Despres, Denise (1985). Franciscan Spirituality: Margery Kempe and Visual Meditation. Mystics Quarterly 11, 12–18.Google Scholar
Dickman, Susan (1984). Margery Kempe and the Continental Tradition of the Pious Woman. In Glasscoe, Marion, ed., The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England 3, Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 150–68.Google Scholar
Dinshaw, Carolyn (1999). Getting Medieval: Sexualities and Communities, Pre- and Postmodern, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Krug, Rebecca (2017). Margery Kempe and the Lonely Reader, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Schein, Sylvia (1999). Bridget of Sweden, Margery Kempe, and Women’s Jerusalem Pilgrimages in the Middle Ages. Mediterranean Historical Review 14, 44–58.Google Scholar
Spearing, A. C. (2004). Margery Kempe. In Edwards, A. S. G., ed., A Companion to Middle English Prose. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 83–99.Google Scholar
Yoshikawa, Naoë K. (2002). Margery Kempe’s Mystical Marriage and Roman Sojourn: Influence of St Bridget of Sweden. Reading Medieval Studies 28, 39–57.Google Scholar

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