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No Ordinary Pilgrim: Margery Kempe And Her Quest For Validation, Authority, And Unique Identity, Alice A. Barfoot

ETD Archive

Movement in literature is a technique used by authors to uncover richer and deeper meaning which cannot be expressed in mere words. Margery Kempe autobiographer, employed movement both literally and figuratively through her pilgrimages to establish her identity as saintly, exceptional, and authoritative. Margery's overarching desire to create this persona for herself is examined through her life's writing, The Book of Margery Kempe. Her Book is studied dually in this thesis, as a treatise on the use of both physical movement and written movement, called the movement/writing model, to understand a woman who possessed extraordinary insight in how to employ …