"The Book of Margery Kempe"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the book "The Book of Margery Kempe", thought to be the very first autobiography ever written in English by Margery Kempe who lived 1373-1438. She was a religious enthusiast who traveled abroad as a pilgrim and as a writer her work has rich details of the everyday life of her time. This paper reviews the book revealing the character of religious zealot who may have experienced madness in the context of the period of history in which she lived. .

From the Paper:

"The Introduction of The Book of Margery Kempe indicates that it was written during the 1430s. "Its protagonist, who represents herself as its ultimate author, was not simply a woman but a woman thoroughly rooted in the world. She evinces the manners and the tastes neither of the court nor of the nunnery, but the piety, the culture, the profit-oriented values, and the status-consciousness of a late medieval town. Kempe examines the fundamental conflicts and tensions of that world by describing her gradual and voluntary movement away from worldly prestige. Margery's disengagement from conventional female roles and duties " and consequently her daring rejection of the values of her fellow townspersons " is a response to her growing commitment to her spiritual vocation."

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