“O der lady, be my help”: Women's Visionary Writing and the Devotional Literary Canon

Abstract

Abstract Focusing initially on the late pilgrimage of Margery Kempe to the Balkan states in 1433, this article presents this journey not only as a crucial catalyst for Kempe's own writing but also as a template for those journeys undertaken by the writings of other visionary writers, such as Mechtild of Hackeborn (d. 1298), often via Carthusian and trade networks. I explore the integral importance of Mechtild's visionary writing within late medieval devotional contexts and its widespread influence not only on English writers such as Kempe and the author of the lesser-known A Revelation of Purgatory (1422), but also on male writers working within more “canonical” contexts and producing works for male and female readers, religious and lay.