Features of Personal Narrative Construction in the Writings of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe

This study is devoted to the writings of the two first English female writers, Julian of Norwich (1342/1343–1416) and Margery Kempe (1371–1438). The research analyses the ways both writers construct their self-images. Julian of Norwich tries to minimize the autobiographical features of personal narrative and pays a lot of attention to her visionary experience. Margery Kempe, however, vividly describes the details of her life, so her book is often regarded as the first autobiography written in English. Nevertheless, in the “The Book of Margery Kempe”, one does not see the narrative from the first-person perspective because Margery is presented as "this creatur". Julian, in her turn, uses such constructions as "I saw" and "to my sighte" in her “Revelations of Divine Love” very frequently. In this study, the possible reasons of such personal narrative construction are presented. Moreover, the cultural and historical context of creation of the both texts and the ways Margery and Julian interact with their readers in order to organize their personal narrative are described. The main idea of the study is that the both writers needed to make their texts comprehensible for their readers in order to bring the audience closer to the divine perfection. Therefore, both types of constructions lead to the universalization of the text.