Project

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Raging Love: The Late Medieval Works and Lives of Margery Kempe (ca. 1373 - ca. 1440) and Alijt Bake (1415-1455)

Applicant Denissen Diana
Number 187759
Funding scheme Early Postdoc.Mobility
Research institution
Institution of higher education Institution abroad - IACH
Main discipline German and English languages and literature
Start/End 01.09.2019 - 30.04.2021
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Keywords (7)

Women's Writing; Middle English; Medieval Spirituality; Life Writing; Middle Dutch; Manuscript studies; Gender studies

Lay Summary (French)

Lead
Ce projet met l’accent sur la voix de Margery Kempe (env. 1372 - env. 1440) et celle d’Alijt Bake (1415-1455) dans deux autobiographies spirituelles de la fin du Moyen-âge: Book of Margery Kempe en moyen anglais et Boecxken van mijn beghin ende voortganck en moyen néerlandais.
Lay summary

Ce projet cherche à analyser quels modèles Alijt Bake et Margery Kempe, deux femmes du Moyen-Âge, utilisent pour se représenter elles-mêmes dans le livre Book of Margery Kempe et dans Boecxken van mijn beghin ende voortganck. L’hypothèse sous-jacente à la question de recherche est que cette forme d’auto-représentation est modelée par des récits religieux plus anciens que Bake et Kempe connaissent et auxquels elles se réfèrent dans leur texte. En combinant ces trames narratives plus anciennes avec des épisodes spécifiques de leur vie quotidienne, Bake et Kempe participent à une forme unique d’écrits spirituels de la fin du Moyen-Âge. Ce projet explore comment des récits pré-existants sont re-écrits par Bake et Kempe dans le but de les ajuster à leur propre situation. La perspective multilingue contribue à ouvrir une dimension plus européenne et plus dynamique de la recherche sur les récits de vie écrits par des femmes. Cette perspective nous permet également de repenser et de redéfinir nos idées sur l’auto-représentation des femmes au Moyen-âge. 
Direct link to Lay Summary Last update: 03.06.2019

Responsible applicant and co-applicants

Publications

Publication
Literacies, Learning, and Alijt Bake’s Communal Reform
DenissenDiana, Literacies, Learning, and Alijt Bake’s Communal Reform, Boydell and Brewer, Woodbridge.
Review of: Moreau-Guibert, Karine. Pore Caitif: A Middle English Manual of Religion and Devotion. Series: Textes vernaculaires du moyen âge. (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2020)
DenissenDiana, Review of: Moreau-Guibert, Karine. Pore Caitif: A Middle English Manual of Religion and Devotion. Series: Textes vernaculaires du moyen âge. (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2020), in The Medieval Review.
Social Exclusion and Female Friendship in the Late Medieval Low Countries and England: The Works and Lives of Alijt Bake and Margery Kempe
Denissen Diana, Social Exclusion and Female Friendship in the Late Medieval Low Countries and England: The Works and Lives of Alijt Bake and Margery Kempe, Masaryk University Press, Brno.

Collaboration

Group / person Country
Types of collaboration
Women Making Memories: Liturgy and the Remembering Female Body in Medieval Holy Women’s Texts Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Europe)
- in-depth/constructive exchanges on approaches, methods or results
History of Reading group, RUG Groningen Netherlands (Europe)
- in-depth/constructive exchanges on approaches, methods or results
- Research Infrastructure
Late Medieval and Early Modern Prayer Culture network Switzerland (Europe)
- in-depth/constructive exchanges on approaches, methods or results
- Research Infrastructure

Scientific events

Active participation

Title Type of contribution Title of article or contribution Date Place Persons involved
'History of Reading' meeting Individual talk Late medieval female religious life writing (Laatmiddeleeuwse levensbeschrijvingen van religieuze vrouwen) 25.11.2020 Groningen, Netherlands Denissen Diana;
Medieval and Early Modern Afterlives (postponed due to covid-19 pandemic) Talk given at a conference The Afterlives of Late Medieval Religious Women: Spiritual Life Writing and Memorial Sisterbooks 03.09.2020 Neuchâtel, Switzerland Denissen Diana;
Fragmentation and Inclusion. Medieval Translation In-Between (postponed to 2021 due to covid-19 pandemic) Talk given at a conference Nuns who (don’t) like Latin: Language Exclusion and Inclusion in Late Medieval Northern European Nunneries’ 23.06.2020 Bologna, Italy Denissen Diana;
MIMMS transnational seminar: Embodying Female Spirituality: A Transnational View Talk given at a conference Alijt Bake's Performative Piety 28.01.2020 Oxford, Great Britain and Northern Ireland Denissen Diana;
Found in Translation Interpreting Reworking and Reinventing Texts Individual talk Respondent of 'Translating Holy Women' session 19.10.2019 Oxford, Great Britain and Northern Ireland Denissen Diana;


Knowledge transfer events

Active participation

Title Type of contribution Date Place Persons involved
Oxford Medieval Mystery Cycle Plays (cancelled due to covid-19) Performances, exhibitions (e.g. for education institutions) 05.04.2020 Oxford, Great Britain and Northern Ireland Denissen Diana;
Introduction to Storytelling for Public Engagement (Humanities Researcher Development and Training Programme) Workshop 29.01.2020 Oxford, Great Britain and Northern Ireland Denissen Diana;


Communication with the public

Communication Title Media Place Year
Media relations: print media, online media Conference Report: Found in Translation The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities website International 2019
Media relations: print media, online media How One Medieval Nun Reformed a Devil's Nest The Public Medievalist International 2019

Awards

Title Year
Visiting fellow of the Senior Common Room, Somerville College, Oxford 2020

Abstract

This project seeks to investigate what kinds of models two medieval women, Alijt Bake and Margery Kempe, used to represent themselves in the Middle English text 'Book of Margery Kempe' and the Middle Dutch text 'Boecxken van mijn beghin ende voortganck' (‘Book on my beginnings and progress’). The hypothesis underlying this question is that this form of self-representation is modelled on older religious narratives that Bake and Kempe knew about and refer to in their texts. By combining these narrative frames with specific everyday occurrences from their own lives, Bake and Kempe participated in a unique form of late medieval spiritual life writing. This project will explore how existing religious narratives are rewritten by Bake and Kempe to fit their own (late medieval) circumstances. The multilingual perspective of this project will contribute towards a more European and dynamic approach to medieval women’s life writing and will rethink and redefine our ideas about medieval female self-representation.
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