Reading Margery Kempe’s inner voices

Saunders, Corinne; Fernyhough, Charles

doi:10.1057/s41280-017-0051-5

Reading Margery Kempe’s inner voices

Saunders, Corinne; Fernyhough, Charles

Authors

Professor Corinne Saunders c.j.saunders@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Professor Charles Fernyhough c.p.fernyhough@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

This article draws on research from the major collaborative research project Hearing the Voice, based at Durham University, to reconsider and foreground Margery Kempe’s inner voices, and hence, to return to an emphasis on inner, spiritual experience as shaping her Book. The richness of Margery’s multi-sensory experience, and the care with which it is depicted, is illuminated by and illuminates the experience of contemporary voice-hearers, offering a powerful alternative perspective to often reductive bio-medical understandings. Contemporary cognitive frameworks, particularly scientific accounts of inner speech, are in turn employed to open out Margery’s inner voices and to offer insights into the psychology of spiritual meditation.

Citation

Saunders, C., & Fernyhough, C. (2017). Reading Margery Kempe’s inner voices. postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies, 8(2), 209-217. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41280-017-0051-5

Journal Article Type	Article
Online Publication Date	Jun 19, 2017
Publication Date	Jun 19, 2017
Deposit Date	Sep 1, 2017
Publicly Available Date	Sep 1, 2017
Journal	postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies
Print ISSN	2040-5960
Electronic ISSN	2040-5979
Publisher	Palgrave Macmillan
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	8
Issue	2
Pages	209-217
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1057/s41280-017-0051-5

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