This study considers the processes by which film and play-texts engage with the mythic figure of Joan of Arc. Chapter One provides an overview of the vast body of work that has been inspired by Joan's history. Chapter Two addresses the tragic configuration of Joan's story, especially with regard to ethical conflict and culpability. In Chapter Three, I discuss the displacement of notions of innocence onto Joan's virginity, youth, illiteracy, and rusticity and examine the ideologically-loaded textual constructions and uses of these elements of her myth. Chapter Four is a consideration of her textually-constructed exclusion from the ordinary run of humanity and of the implications of her strangeness and estrangement. Chapter Five is focused upon representations of Joan's condemnation trial. I consider the processes of narrativisation by which means documentary records become historical accounts. I consider fictional reenactments of Joan's trial as 'texts within texts, ' engaged in a double process of interrogation which allows Joan to be both persecuted for her transgressiveness and elevated to the status of a saint. Chapter Six examines the central importance of Joan's transgressiveness, exploring the disciplinary strategies employed by a variety of film and play texts as they attempt to counter her troublesome ambiguousness, to identify and define her, and to effect her epistemological assimilation. Chapter Seven is a consideration of the similarities and differences between the myths of Joan of Arc and of Christ and their representation in film. It explores the semantic association between transgression and transcendence, between the 'unnatural' and the 'supernatural, ' with regard to their crucial relation to the limits of discourse and epistemology. In Chapter Eight, I explore myth as a discursive practice and examine the operations of myth and of ideology in relation to the obsessive cultural reiteration of the myth of Joan of Arc.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:387995 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Jones, Sara Gwenllian |
| Publisher | University of Bristol |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1983/0ed58238-0681-4aad-b40a-ea3095fe3b34 |
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