ABSTRACT
Physically and spiritually restless even as an elderly woman, Margery Kempe lacked a conventionally sanctioned place in the English spiritual tradition. Concerning Kempe’s status as saintly or mad, authentic or hypocritical, public opinion, as reported in her Book, is more divided and fragile than it is of any other English or continental woman saint or mystic. In many episodes recounted in her Book, Kempe behaves as a persistent social and moral gadfly and courageous foe of corrupt churchmen. Narrative and structural tension frequently arises in the text as a result of the contradictory impulses in Kempe. Consciousness of self and literal physical safety is often synonymous for Kempe in a psychological sense. The narrative structure of an overwhelming number of episodes and sections of the Book thus mirrors Kempe’s experience of loss or lack and repeats the same over and over again.
