September 16, 2019
Daniela Fuhrmann (CENES Visiting Scholar, Assistant Professor at the University of Zurich): “Margery Kempe: The Benefits of Being Late”
Lunch will be served at 12:00 pm
12:15pm
C.K. Choi, Rm #351
Abstract – Combining two popular genres of the Late Middle Ages – a mystical life and a pilgrimage narrative –, The Book of Margery Kempe turns lifetime into travel time and, simultaneously, ties the protagonist’s spiritual motion to her physical movement. Interestingly, Margery oftentimes is delayed on her way through the world as well as on her way to God. This talk aims to show, in what way the Book as a rather late representative of mystical life narratives makes certain use of the travelogue as a literary form in letting Margery’s worldly travels shed also light on her way to God. Within this process, her characteristic of being late receives poetological value because the Book in particular uses this experience of time to reflect, comment and even enhance its own status as an epigone.