자서전 글쓰기와 여성주체: 마저리 캠프의 책을 중심으로
Writing an Autobiography and the Female Subjectivity: The Book of Margery Kempe
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This essay examines autobiographics and female subjectivity inscribed in The Book of Margery Kempe, the autobiography of a medieval female mystic Margery Kempe. The "I" in an autobiography is generally a "fictional I" which does not represent the real self, for the autobiographical subject is a constructed one in process of representation. Furthermore, the represented "I" should be elucidated in the context of cultural codes, because subjectivity is influenced by social, historical, and linguistical codes. An autobiographical "I" cannot be the same as a real self, the unitary subjectivity. Therefore, an autobiographical "I", to a large extent, registers the textual, metonymical, and constructed subjectivity, and it is never able to escape from the predominant discourses. From this point of view, Margery in The Book of Margery Kempe is not her real self represented without any distortion. Especially, as a female subject in the medieval period, Margery needed strategies to claim the authority of her own self. Hiring male scribes for the Book is one of her writing strategies to gain an authority as a female mystic. Because her eccentric religious behaviors functioned as a threat to orthodox Catholic church, she was always in danger of being burned as a heretic. Thus the priest, the male scribe of her Book, could be a good source to guarantee the authority of her text. More importantly, her image of subjectivity which seeks to adapt herself to the predominant religious discourse reveals her effort for negotiation with the world of male authority. As the autobiography of a female subject, The Book of Margery Kempe shows a process of constructing a female subjectivity. It is meaningful that Margery claimed her subjectivity in the medieval patriarchal society through the writing process of her transgressive mystical experience. She was, however, only a lay person, not a nun, a professional meditator, nor a radical feminist. Margery Kempe, represented in her Book, is an eccentric and subversive subject, but seeks a reintegration into the predominant male discourse.
Abstract
This essay examines autobiographics and female subjectivity inscribed in The Book of Margery Kempe, the autobiography of a medieval female mystic Margery Kempe. The "I" in an autobiography is generally a "fictional I" which does not represent the real self, for the autobiographical subject is a constructed one in process of representation. Furthermore, the represented "I" should be elucidated in the context of cultural codes, because subjectivity is influenced by social, historical, and linguistical codes. An autobiographical "I" cannot be the same as a real self, the unitary subjectivity. Therefore, an autobiographical "I", to a large extent, registers the textual, metonymical, and constructed subjectivity, and it is never able to escape from the predominant discourses. From this point of view, Margery in The Book of Margery Kempe is not her real self represented without any distortion. Especially, as a female subject in the medieval period, Margery needed strategies to claim the authority of her own self. Hiring male scribes for the Book is one of her writing strategies to gain an authority as a female mystic. Because her eccentric religious behaviors functioned as a threat to orthodox Catholic church, she was always in danger of being burned as a heretic. Thus the priest, the male scribe of her Book, could be a good source to guarantee the authority of her text. More importantly, her image of subjectivity which seeks to adapt herself to the predominant religious discourse reveals her effort for negotiation with the world of male authority. As the autobiography of a female subject, The Book of Margery Kempe shows a process of constructing a female subjectivity. It is meaningful that Margery claimed her subjectivity in the medieval patriarchal society through the writing process of her transgressive mystical experience. She was, however, only a lay person, not a nun, a professional meditator, nor a radical feminist. Margery Kempe, represented in her Book, is an eccentric and subversive subject, but seeks a reintegration into the predominant male discourse.
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- "Writing an Autobiography and the Female Subjectivity The Book of Margery Kempe"