A Companion to The Book of Margery Kempe

by John H. Arnold (Editor), Katherine J. Lewis (Editor)

Margery Kempe's Book provides rare access to the "marginal voice" of a lay medieval woman, and is now the focus of much critical study. This Companion seeks to complement the existing almost exclusively literary scholarship with work that also draws significantly on historical analysis, and is concerned to contextualise Kempe's Book in a number of different ways, using her work as a way in to the culture and society of medieval northern Europe. Topics include images and pilgrimage; women, work and trade in medieval Norfolk; political culture and heresy; the prophetic tradition; female mystics and the body; women's roles and lifecycle; religious drama and reenactment; autobiography and gender. Contributors JOHN H. ARNOLD, P.H. CULLUM, ISABEL DAVIS, ALLYSON FOSTER, JACQUELINE JENKINS, KATHERINE J. LEWIS, KATE PARKER, KIM M. PHILLIPS, SARAH SALIH, CLAIRE SPONSLER, DIANE WATT, BARRY WINDEATT.

Table of Contents

Preface [with Katherine J Lewis] - John H ArnoldPreface [with John H Arnold] - Katherine J Reading and Re-Reading The Book of Margery Kempe - Barry A WindeattMargery Kempe and the Ages of Woman - Kim M PhillipsMen and Negotiating Medieval Patriarchy - Lynn and the Making of a Mystic - Kate ParkerMargery's Heresy, Lollardy and Dissent - John H ArnoldA Shorte Treatyse of The Book of Margery Kempe in its Early Print Contexts - Allyson FosterReading and The Book of Margery Kempe - Jacqueline JenkinsMargery Kempe, Drama and Piety - Claire SponslerPolitical Prophecy in The Book of Margery Kempe - Diane WattMargery's Piety, Work and Penance - Sarah Salih`Yf lak of charyte be not ower hynderawnce': Margery Kempe, Lynn, and the practice of the spiritual and bodily works of mercy - P H CullumMargery Kempe and Saint-Making in Later Medieval England - Katherine J LewisFinal Thoughts [with Katherine J Lewis] - John H ArnoldFinal Thoughts [with John H Arnold] - Katherine J Lewis

Genres: Medieval

270 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

John Hugh Arnold (born 1969) is a British historian. Since 2016, he has been the Professor of Medieval History at the University of Cambridge. He previously worked at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he specialised in the study of medieval religious culture. He has also written widely on historiography and why history matters.

Born 28 November 1969, Arnold received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in medieval studies from the University of York. He was professor of medieval history at Birkbeck College, University of London, from 2008. He joined the college as a lecturer in 2001. Before that he was a lecturer at the University of East Anglia. He is a member of the Social History Society and the Medieval Academy of America.

Arnold specialises in the study of medieval religious culture, saying that while he has never been a believer in any religion, "belief" has always fascinated him. In his work he asks "Why do people believe the things they believe? What does 'believing' really mean in practice?" Arnold has also written widely about historiography. In 2008 he wrote a policy paper, Why history matters - and why medieval history also matters, for History & Policy.