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Looking ahead . Chaucer challenge Website: FQ materials. The Book of Margery Kempe. Important Terms Litteratus— amanuensis Mysticism Imitatio Christi. Mysticism .
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Looking ahead • Chaucer challenge • Website: FQ materials
The Book of Margery Kempe • Important Terms • Litteratus—amanuensis • Mysticism • Imitatio Christi
Mysticism • “an immediate knowledge of God attained in this present life through personal religious experience. It is primarily a state of prayer, and as such admits of various degrees from short and rare divine ‘touches’ to a practically permanent union with God” • Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
Book of Margery Kempe • Genre • Autobiography • Hagiography • Spiritual autobiography • Can we consider this autohagiography?
Kempe • Defying Categories • Options for women • Kempe’s marriage and secular life • Life with her husband – youth and age • Book 1.11 (page 426, 9th ed) • Book 1.76 (page 435, 9th ed)
Kempe • Mystical experiences • 1.1 (page 425 9th ed) • 1.79 (page 436, 9th ed) • Mysticism and eroticism
Pilgrimage • Jerusalem, heavenly and earthly • 1.28 (page 429, 9th ed) • Bodily eye/spiritual eye • Affective piety • Changes in representations of Christ
Kempe’s reaction to a Pietà • Weeping—Affective piety • Book 1.28 (page 429 9th ed) • The Compassion of Mary 1.79 (p. 436 9th ed)
Vision of the Passion • Meditations on the Life of Christ • Kempe comforts the Virgin Mary • 1.79 (page 436, 9th ed) • Visions of torture • Connections to Anti-Semitism
York Play • Context in medieval drama • Mystery cycles • Passion plays • Corpus Christi plays • Communal forms, connections to liturgy
York Play • Urban form • Community based • Chester, York, N-Town, Towneley
Medieval Drama • Non-professional • Cross-dressing • Early Records (REED) • Pageant Wagons • Feast of Corpus Christi
The York Play • Crucifixion is one part of a sequence describing suffering • The banality of evil l. 229 ff. • The role of the spectator • L. 253
York Play • Anachronism • Mahound (line 61)
Two linguistic and literary historical periods Old English—Anglo-Saxon Middle English Medieval Section Overview
Beowulf • Nature of the hero • Structure of the poem • Relation to issues of gender
Canterbury Tales • Estates Satire • Miller’s Tale—Fabliau—Quitting • Wife of Bath—Anti-feminist Satire • Pardoner— • Spiritual and physical ambiguity
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight • Text Structured through parallels • The façade of courtly culture • Testing of Knightly Identity
Kempe • Auto-hagiography Affective piety