LIBS661

The study of Joan of Arc's brief life, with its meteoric rise and fall, involves issues that inspire passionate response: religion and mysticism; individual rights and responsibilities; love of king and country; recognition of women's abilities and power; upward mobility. In order to understand the 15th-century view of these issues, we look back at earlier stages of the Middle Ages, and the authority that was present in the Church, government, and various social strata. We will accomplish this investigation early in the course through readings and discussions of literature of the Middle Ages, contemporary feminist and revisionist history of the roles and limitations placed on medieval women, and analytic and biographical materials about Joan of Arc herself. Joan's role as symbol for liberal and social movements, social constructions of "woman", and war efforts has continued since the time of the French Revolution. The latter half of the course examines selected readings and images of Joan and her iconographic importance.