Joan the Woman

Sponsoring Organization(s)

International Joan of Arc Society/Société Internationale de l'étude de Jeanne d'Arc

Organizer Name

Gail Orgelfinger

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of Maryland-Baltimore County

Presider Name

Gail Orgelfinger

Paper Title 1

The Redhead and the Widow: Gender Models and Modifications in Joan of Arc's Two Trials

Presenter 1 Name

Tara B. Smithson

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Manchester Univ.

Paper Title 2

Profaning the Pucelle: Voltaire Comments on the Body Politic

Presenter 2 Name

Stephanie L. Coker

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of North Alabama

Paper Title 3

Not As Advertised: The Ringling Bros. Joan of Arc Spectacle

Presenter 3 Name

Scott Manning

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Independent Scholar

Paper Title 4

The Patron Saint of Dysphoria: Joan of Arc as Transgender

Presenter 4 Name

M. W. Bychowski

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Case Western Reserve Univ.

Start Date

12-5-2019 8:30 AM

Session Location

Fetzer 1005

Description

Cecil B. DeMille’s 1916 silent film Joan the Woman situates Joan of Arc in both historical and contemporary fields of battle. But much of the focus is on Joan’s emotional attachment to an English soldier she encounters as a young girl, and then her inspiration of that man’s twentieth century descendant in the trenches. Earlier writers also felt it necessary to emphasize Joan’s feminine, heterosexual identity and her ability to inspire love or lust, not just bravery. Others emphasize her saintly chastity and her unconscious power to emasculate the men with whom she lived most intimately. Still others redefine her womanhood in terms of the fluidity of gender, recreating her as bi-sexual, lesbian, or trans. This session invites papers that explore how and where various writers, film-makers, artists, or musicians have sought to locate Joan of Arc’s womanhood. Gail Orgelfinger