Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 7694
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Currey , Kate.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Re-presenting Joan of Arc: The Embodiment of Female Identity in Late- Medieval Literature
  • Source: Seeing Gender: Perspectives on Medieval Gender and Sexuality. Gender and Medieval Studies Conference, King's College, London, January 4-6, 2002.. 2002.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Conference Paper Abstract
  • Subject (See Also): Gender in Literature Joan of Arc, Saint in Literature Women in Literature
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: France
  • Century: 15- 16
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  • Abstract: In this paper I intend to examine how Joan of Arc’s gender identity was presented in a variety of literary contexts between the medieval and early modern periods. Recent scholarship in the field of gender has done much to contextualise the sexual identity and self-perception of medieval women. Such questions have likewise been applied to Joan of Arc, especially with respect to such sources as the records of her initial trial and her subsequent ification. Here, the physical actuality of Joan is a constant presence, whether it relates to her apparent preference for male attire, or the fact that she aroused no desire amongst her troops. This paper explores how these issues were embodied in late-medieval literary sources, where the figure of Joan could be deployed to represent different and contested aspects of gender identity. The range of material examined includes Chrsitine de Pisan’s Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc, the verse Mystère du siege d’Orléans and the Chronique de Lorraine and a Jesuit drama of 1581, L’Historie Tragique de la Pucelle de Domrémy. [Reproduced by permission of the Gender and Medieval Studies Conference Organizers].
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: University of Exeter
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2002.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: Not Available