Dresvina J. Medieval memes, misericords and Margery Kempe [Digital Resource] // Vox medii aevi. 2021. Vol. 2(9). P. 117–146. URL: https://voxmediiaevi.com/2021-2-dresvina/
DOI: 10.24412/2587-6619-2021-2-117-146
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Juliana Dresvina
PhD in History, Research Associate, Faculty of History, University of Oxford
juliana.dresvina@history.ox.ac.uk
Medieval memes, misericords and Margery Kempe
The article interprets medieval mercy seats (misericords) as collections of memes (memeplexes), rooted in pre-modern oral culture, allowing for a cognitive shortcut in an otherwise long and obscure discussion of the origins of many misericords’ exact iconography. It then proceeds to examine the use of such memes in ‘The Book of Margery Kempe’ (c. 1438) as a means for economic storytelling and self-fashioning.
Keywords: animals; fools; Margery Kempe; memetics; misericords; scatology; sexual imagery; storytelling.