“aftyr hyr owyn tunge”: body, voice and authority inthe book of margery kempe

Abstract

This essay examinesThe Book of Margery Kempein the light of recent debate about the contribution of Kempe's scribe to the writing process, and will argue implicitly against major scribal input and shaping of the text. It will focus on Kempe's foregrounding of the female body, and in particular the female voice, as an authoritative means of articulating the mystical experience and of circumventing the need for scripted, ecclesiastic endorsement. It will also suggest that theBook's authority is intensely gendered, dependent as it is upon a transgressive female voice which has the temerity to act as mouthpiece for the masculine Divinity. Examining Kempe's behaviour in the light of late medieval attitudes towards female orality, therefore, the essay will illustrate how she skilfully manipulates the complex paradoxes inherent within these attitudes. Finally, it will suggest that it is Margery Kempe's insistence upon the transcendent articulacy of the female voice that allows her to disseminate her mystical insights and to achieve an authoritative status as holy woman and author within a socio-religious climate intent on silencing her.