EN392 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Hagiography, Margery Kempe, Microbrewery
EN392
Margery Kempe
Margery Kempe
• Gets aa ith saig stuff laiig she is just haig oersatios
• Self-deprecation
• Requirement of being a virgin but she is not
o Still has a religious career anyway
• Balanced character – did both good and bad
o More warts and all here I am character
o Not presented as the perfect, magical character that can argue with the best of them
• Frustration around what she gets up to
o We never hear or learn about what she sees or experiences
o Perersel does’t suppl ou ith what you want to know
o What sexual crime is she guilty of?
o Breaks down narrative expectations of us readers
• This is’t a oplete aout of her life
o Did she choose the material or did the confessor who wrote I all down decide on
content – question of age he she a’t read or rite
Prologue
• All over the place with the priests she works with
• Not in chronological order but her thoughts as they came to her
o Free associative mad scramble
• Potetial iferee that God’s essage is hard to uderstad ad his essage is’t readil
available to all – takes work to get to the message
• Mystical visitation is hard on the person receiving it
• A lot aout her as the essel of the essage oetig the oe’s perspetie
• Very disjointed
The Book of Margery Kempe
• She spoke some conversational German – went there and had family
• She was not well-spoken
• Priest tries the second time and can read it
• 638 – book is not in order
• A lot of information about how it was written
o He had to write about the difficulty of writing what she said
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Chapter 1
• Gets pregat as soo as she’s arried 20
• Comes from a prominent family
o Businesspeople her dad was mayor
• From a proper town with a charter
• You would pay people to pay your children often
• Owed businesses – women could and did run their own businesses
o This stopped in 1500 or so wherein they have to pass it onto their husbands
• Did pretty well financially
• Child birth mortality and IMR very high
o She had a really bad case of morning sickness and fever which made her think she was
going to die (was her first child)
o Sent after the priest to do a confession (last rights)
▪ Confessor cuts her off before she finishes – cannot lift the burden
▪ She could not confess everything so her only chance at heaven is lost
• Sense of aloneness – devil tempts her to do so when in good health
• Suffered from severely poor mental health with very overt symptoms
o Thought she was being harassed by demons for over half a year
o Could be post-partem depression
o Imagery of the devil about to swallow her in
• Metal health + oert odil sptos of lookig like she’s eig tossed aroud
• Devils tell her to destroy vestiges of her faith and ruin her friendships
o Typical of her to do exactly what she is told to do
o Slanders her husband, friends, and own self
o Bit her own hand so violently that she is permanently marked
▪ Marks of consumptions
▪ Same as the lady in Sir Orfeo
o She is restrained afterward
• In a situation of absolute despair Jesus appears to her
o Most pleasing man who could ever be seen with human eye
o Looks upon her giving her strength
o Asks how she could forsake him while he never forsaken her
• Life really begins with her first vision
o Similar to Julia of Norwich – objectify, sexualize, and eroticize the male body
▪ Purple silk robe (wealth, prosperity, and the Roman emperor) = eroticism
• Asks husband for keys to the cellar – part of her job as head of the household
o Sign things are back to normal as she is picking up on her responsibilities
o Values herself more now – ready to eat and drink
o Locks on everything to keep out the servants
• Conversion moment for her
• Images associated with hell are gone & everything is okay
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
