ScholarWorks > Arts & Sciences > English > COMPDR > Vol. 38 (2004) > Iss. 4
Joan of Arc Internationale: Shaw, Brecht, and the Law of Nations
Abstract
In 1920, Joan of Arc—a symbolic heroine of the Great War, representative of the struggle against tyranny, exemplar of courage under the dark fires of the trenches—became Saint Joan. Her entry into official sainthood was to mark an end of the War to End All Wars and the beginning of the new era. This essay explores Shaw’s Saint Joan (1923) and three Brecht plays, Saint Joan of the Stockyards (1929), The Trial of Joan of Arc at Rouen, 1431 (1934), and The Visions of Simone Machard (1942-3), looking at how the Joan of Arc myth serves as a dramatic vehicle for critiquing not only the sanguine post-war belief in world peace as global justice but the legal system itself, national and international.
Recommended Citation
Peters, Julie Stone
(2004)
"Joan of Arc Internationale: Shaw, Brecht, and the Law of Nations,"
Comparative Drama: Vol. 38:
Iss.
4, Article 1.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol38/iss4/1