Kempe, Margery
KEMPE, MARGERY (c. 1373–c.1440), English pilgrim, autobiographer, and professional holy woman. Kempe was the daughter of a prosperous merchant of King's Lynn, England. Alt...
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Margery Kempe
1373?-1438?
English mystic and autobiographer whose dictated life story, The Book of Margery Kempe, is considered the first autobiography in English. A well-to-do matron who bore 14 chil...
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Margery Kempe
(1373 - 1440)
English autobiographer.
Margery Kempe: Introduction
Margery Kempe: Principal Works
Margery Kempe: Primary Sources
Margery Kempe: Title Commentary
Margery Kempe: Further Rea...
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Margery (Burnham) Kempe was a fifteenth-century Englishwoman known in her own time as a mystic and exemplar of the apostolic life of contemplative prayer and charitable works. Her life story, The Book...
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In the following essay, Mueller maintains that The Book of Margery Kempe has been overlooked as an autobiography and has instead been examined primarily as an example of late medieval literature and s...
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In the essay that follows, Lochrie asserts that medieval mystical texts, such as The Book of Margery Kempe, strive to “authorize the oral text within their written text.” Lochrie examine...
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In the following essay, Harding contends that The Book of Margery Kempe is a dialogue between Kempe's scribe, as a representative of the literate, celibate, male clerical segment of society, an...
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In the following essay, Staley analyzes the episodic structure of The Book of Margery Kempe and Kempe's “sophisticated” choice of words, which works to both communicate and obfusc...
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In the following essay, Glenn offers a reading of The Book of Margery Kempe that focuses on the rhetorical strategies Kempe employs in the work. From within the “discourse of Franciscan affecti...
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In the following essay, Shklar investigates the issue of Kempe's religious dissent, as it is revealed in The Book of Margery Kempe. Shklar explains that the Lollards—a sect of religious ...
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In the following essay, Beckwith studies the issue of Kempe's female mysticism in The Book of Margery Kempe, focusing particularly on how the work affects patriarchal order. Beckwith reviews th...
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In the following essay, Skinner offers a brief manuscript history of The Book of Margery Kempe and comments on Kempe's illiteracy, as well as the work's structure and historical context....
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Margery Kempe, the main topic of this essay, was in fact a controversial person. During her lifetime peoples' opinions about her were quite polarized. She was a conspicuous person and was in many conf...
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