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Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc
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 | This article possibly contains original research. (February 2023) |
Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc in French) has inspired artistic and cultural works for nearly six centuries. The following lists cover various media to include items of historic interest, enduring works of high art, and recent representations in popular culture. The entries represent portrayals that a reader has a reasonable chance of encountering rather than a complete catalog. Lesser known works, particularly from early periods, are not included. In this article, many of the excluded items are derivative of better known representations. For instance, Friedrich Schiller's 1801 play The Maid of Orleans inspired at least 82 different dramatic works during the nineteenth century, and Verdi's and Tchaikovsky's operatic adaptations are still recorded and performed. Most of the others survive only in research libraries. As another example, in 1894, Émile Huet listed over 400 plays and musical works about Joan of Arc. Despite a great deal of scholarly interest in Joan of Arc, no complete list of artistic works about her exists, although a 1989 doctoral dissertation did identify all relevant films including ones for which no copy survives.[1]
Portrayals of Joan of Arc are numerous. For example, in 1979 the Bibliothèque Municipale in Rouen, France displayed a gallery containing over 500 images and other items related to Joan of Arc. The story of Joan of Arc was a popular subject for dramatization in the 1940s. In addition to Maxwell Anderson's play Joan of Lorraine and the Ingrid Bergman film Joan of Arc, there was also the 1948 RKO film The Miracle of the Bells starring Fred MacMurray, Alida Valli, and Frank Sinatra, about a dying film actress whose first and last role is Joan of Arc. There were also three radio dramatizations of the story of Joan during those years, one of them specifically written with a World War II framework.
Literature and theatre
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Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain, 1896 novel -
Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw, 1923 play -
Lachmi Bai, the Joan of Arc of India, by 'Michael White. Lachmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi, a major leader of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, was like Joan of Arc a courageous warrior woman, admired as a heroine after her death. -
Lalla Fatma N'Soumer, the Kabile woman who led a prolonged resistance to the French conquest of Algeria, was respected and honored by her French foes as "The Alegerian Jeanne d'Arc" or "La Jeanne d'Arc du Djurdjura". Like Joan of Arc, Lalla Fatma N'Soumer was a notable religious leader as well as a political and military one. (Here shown in a famous painting by Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux).
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| Date | Title | Author | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1429 | "Chanson en l'honneur de Jeanne d'Arc" | Christine de Pizan | An elegiac poem written during Joan's lifetime. The author's final work. English translation available: . |
| 1435 | Histoire du Siège d'Orléans | Anonymous (possibly Jacques Millet) | First performed in Orléans four years after Joan's death. The surviving version appears to be a revision from circa 1450. God and several saints play major roles in this sprawling drama with more than 100 speaking parts. |
| after 1435 | Ballade | François Villon | Part of Le Testament, Villon calls Joan "the good (woman from) Lorraine whom the English burned in Rouen". |
| 1590 | Henry VI, Part 1 | William Shakespeare | Drawn from 16th century English sources, Joan begins with the appearance of piety but soon proves to be a cunning witch justly executed. Project Gutenberg text: . |
| 1756 | La Pucelle des Oranges | Voltaire | A mock epic poem that explores typically Voltairean themes deriding mysticism as humbug. Wikisource text (in French): |
| 1796 | Joan of Arc | Robert Southey | An epic poem |
| 1801 | Die Jungfrau von Orleans | Friedrich Schiller | In literary rebuttal to Voltaire, Schiller creates a sympathetic Joan as a Romantic heroine. A magic helmet renders her invincible until she falls in love, and is killed in battle rather than being burned at the stake. This drama was the basis of Tchaikovsky's opera of the same name. Project Gutenberg text in English: . |
| 1817 | Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc Tome1 Tome2 Tome3 Tome4 | Philippe-Alexandre Le Brun de Charmettes | Drawn from her own declarations, 144 depositions of witnesses, and manuscripts of the library of the King and the Tower of London. |
| 1819 | L'Orléanide: Poème National en Vingt-Huit Chants | Philippe-Alexandre Le Brun de Charmettes | Epic poem based on his Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc[2] |
| 1821 | The Destiny of Nations | Samuel Taylor Coleridge | Initially part of Robert Southey's Joan of Arc |
| 1849 | "Couteau de Executioner ou Jéanne d'Arc: Un conte de l'Inquisition" | Eugène Sue | From serial novel Les Mystères du Peuple. Translated into English as The Executioner's Knife or Joan of Arc: A Tale of the Inquisition by Daniel De Leon (1910) |
| 1894 | La Mission de Jeanne d'Arc | Thérèse of Lisieux | The first of two 'pious recreations' written by the Saint; "small theatrical pieces performed by a few nuns for the rest of the community, on the occasion of certain feast days." Performed at the Carmel on 21 January 1894, it featured Thérèse in the title role. The script, which focuses more heavily upon Joan's interaction with her visions, has since been widely circulated with Saint Thérèse's writings, as has that of its sequel. |
| 1895 | Jeanne d'Arc Accomplit Sa Mission | Thérèse of Lisieux | Sequel to La Mission de Jeanne d'Arc, this was performed exactly one year later, 21 January 1895. Again featuring Thérèse as Joan, its focus is upon her martyrdom. In the estimation of Thérèse's biographer, Ida Görres, the two plays "are scarcely veiled self-portraits." |
| 1896 | Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc | Mark Twain | This work is little remembered yet in Mark Twain's own opinion was his finest work. Twain spent months in France researching newly rediscovered documents and years of research overall. This reverent fictional biography is Twain's most uncharacteristic novel. Project Gutenberg text: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. He published it under a different pseudonym: Jean François Alden. |
| 1896 | Jeanne d'Arc | Charles Péguy | Play chronicling Joan's life |
| 1910 | Jéanne d'Arc, Médium | Léon Denis | Translated into English as The Mystery of Joan of Arc by Arthur Conan Doyle (1924) |
| 1912 | Tapisserie de Sainte Geneviève et Jeanne d'Arc | Charles Péguy | Poem about Joan and Saint Geneviève |
| 1923 | Gilles und Johanna | Georg Kaiser | Expressionist drama explores Joan's relationship with her general Gilles de Rais, who would become one of the most-notorious criminals in French history |
| 1923 | Saint Joan | George Bernard Shaw | This drama, widely esteemed as Shaw's masterpiece, draws heavily from trial records. Historians dismiss Shaw's contention that she was an early Protestant with impartial judges. Subsequent twentieth century plays often mirror Shaw's interest in her trial. ISBN 0-14-043791-6 |
| 1930 | Saint Joan of the Stockyards | Bertolt Brecht | Transposes Joan to working-class Chicago and portrays her as a labor leader. 1st of his 3 plays on Joan. ISBN 1-55970-420-9 |
| 1935 | A Vida de Joana D'Arc | Érico Veríssimo | A Brazilian historical novel addressed to young people. |
| 1937 | Der Prozeß der Johanna von Arc zu Rouen | Anna Seghers | In German. Radio play based on the trial records. |
| 1942 | The Visions of Simone Machard | Bertolt Brecht and Lion Feuchtwanger | A girl imagines herself as Joan during World War II while in a dream. Second of his 3 plays on Joan. |
| 1943 | The Fountainhead | Ayn Rand | Rand's original manuscript of The Fountainhead included a major character named Vesta Dunning, a talented young actress whose greatest dream is to play Joan of Arc on the stage. In one scene, Dunning is shown rehearsing a long monologue by Joan of Arc ("If you but follow me, we'll lift together the siege of Orleans and win freedom!"). However, Rand - pressured by her publisher to shorten the book - entirely dropped this character from the final published text. The deleted parts, including the Joan of Arc monologue, were published after Rand's death by Leonard Peikoff.[3] |
| 1946 | Joan of Lorraine | Maxwell Anderson | This play-within-a-play is chiefly memorable for Ingrid Bergman's Tony-winning performance. ASIN B0006YOM36 |
| 1952 | The Trial of Joan of Arc of Proven, 1431 | Bertolt Brecht and Benno Besson | Adaptation of Anna Seghers's Der Prozeß der Johanna von Arc zu Rouen |
| 1953 | L'Alouette | Jean Anouilh | An allegory of Vichy collaboration in the aftermath of World War II. Lillian Hellman's noteworthy English translation adds a critique of McCarthyism and included a score by Leonard Bernstein. ISBN 0-8222-0634-X |
| 1955 | Seraphic Dialogue | Martha Graham | Modern-dance work in one act with choreography by Graham, music by Norman Dello Joio, set by Isamu Noguchi, costumes by Graham, and lighting by Jean Rosenthal. It was originally choreographed as a solo (same music, 1950) under Triumph of St Joan. In this revised version, Joan looks back over her life in a series of danced dialogues with her guiding spirit, St Michael, and with three figures who represent different aspects of her nature: maid, warrior, and martyr. At the work's close, the transfigured Joan takes her place among the saints. |
| 1956 | De Jungfrur av Orleans | Sven Stolpe | Novel written as Joan telling the reader about her life story. |
| 1961 | Die Sendung des Mädchens Jeanne d'Arc | M.J. Krück von Poturzyn | Romanticized novel about the life of Joan of Arc. |
| 1964 | The Dead Lady of Clown Town | Cordwainer Smith | A far-future science fiction story with strong parallels to the history of Joan of Arc. |
| 1968 | The Image of the Beast | Philip José Farmer | Joan of Arc is portrayed as an alien sexual predator, still alive in the 20th century but with her body altered to enable the also-alien 15th-century serial killer Gilles de Rais to live within her vagina dentata as a fang-toothed venomous snake that bites and paralyses men during intercourse. |
| 1972 | "Jeanne d'Arc" | Patti Smith | Poem. From Seventh Heaven. |
| 1974 | Blood Red, Sister Rose | Thomas Keneally | The novel explores the imagined psychology of Joan and tells her story from Domrémy to the coronation of Charles VII. Significant secondary characters include Charles and Gilles de Rais. The novel enters into the minds of Joan and Charles but not of Gilles. A notable feature of the book is the conversations of Joan with her voices. ISBN 0-00-221087-8 |
| 1975 | The Banner of Joan | H. Warner Munn | Book-length poem about Joan's life.[4] |
| 1981 | Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism | Marina Warner | (University of California Press, 1981 ISBN 0-520-22464-7) The work is not so much a biography as a book about Joan of Arc or, more precisely, how she has been perceived by others over the centuries and how that perception has shaped her image. |
| 1993 | The Second Coming of Joan of Arc | Carolyn Gage | A one woman-lesbian play. Joan returns to share her story with contemporary women. She tells her experiences with the highest levels of church, state, and military, portraying male institutions as brutal and misogynistic. ISBN 0-939821-06-0 |
| 1997 | An Army of Angels | Pamela Marcantel | A novel which depicts Joan of Arc according to the author's conception of her personality. ISBN 0-312-18042-X |
| 1999 | Jeanne d'Arc | Michel Peyramaure | A novel in two parts (in French). ISBN 2-221-08922-7, 2-221-08923-5. |
| 2003 | Monstrous Regiment | Terry Pratchett | Part of the Discworld series, a fictional character styled after Joan of Arc dresses as a man to lead an army. ISBN 0-06-001316-8 |
| 2005 | La Hire: Ou la Colère de Jéanne | Régine Deforges | Joan's story from the perspective of military commander La Hire ISBN 2-213-62497-6 |
| 2006 | Rogue Angel Series | Alex Archer | A series of action/adventure novels, the main character of which is the successor to Joan of Arc. |
| 2006 | Johanna | Felicitas Hoppe | Postmodern novel rejecting any endeavor to fictionalize Joan of Arc. ISBN 978-3-596-16743-2 |
| 2008 | The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel | Michael Scott | Fantasy novel in which Joan of Arc features prominently. She is an immortal living in modern-day Paris. It is explained that she was rescued from her execution by the warrior Scathach. |
| 2012 | Sparrow: The True Story of Joan of Arc | Michael Morpurgo | Historical novel about Joan for children.[5] |
| 2013 | Fate/Apocrypha | Yuichiro Higashide | Part of the Fate franchise. Joan is summoned as a Ruler-class Servant to oversee the Great Holy Grail War, in which two teams consisting of seven Servants battle for control of the Holy Grail. |
| 2022 | I, Joan | Charlie Josephine | Debut at the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Portrays Joan as trans and non-binary, as a central theme of the plot. Both the playwright (Charlie Josephine), and the actor playing Joan (Isobel Thom) also identify as non-binary. |
| 2022 | The Genesis of Misery | Neon Yang | Neon Yang's novel is a retelling of the story of Joan of Arc as a mecha space opera. It is the first in a planned trilogy. |
| 2023 | Born to Do This: The Joan of Arc Rock Opera[6] | Zoe Bradford | Debut at The Company Theatre in Norwell, Massachusetts.[7] A sung-through, contemporary rock opera based on Jeanne D'Arc's life and death. |
Operas, oratorios, and vocal works
| Date | Title | Composer | Genre | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1789 | Giovanna d'Arco | Gaetano Andreozzi | opera | Libretto by Antonio Simeone Sografi. Premiere at the Teatro Nuovo Eretenio in Vicenza on 27 June 1789. |
| 1790 | Jeanne d'Arc à Orléans | Rodolphe Kreutzer | opéra comique | Libretto by Pierre Jean Baptiste Choudard Desforges. Premiered at the Comédie-Italienne on 10 May 1790. |
| 1821 | Giovanna d'Arco | Salvatore Viganò | ballet | Plot influenced by Die Jungfrau von Orleans by Schiller. Premiered at La Scala on 3 March 1821. |
| 1821 | Jeanne d'Arc à Orléans | Michele Carafa | opéra comique | Libretto by Emmanuel Théaulon and Armand Dartois, after Schiller. Premiere at Théâtre Feydeau on 10 March 1821. |
| 1825 | Giovanna d'Arco | Giuseppe Nicolini | opera | Libretto by Apostolo Zeno. Premiered at Teatro Regio on 22 January 1825. |
| 1827 | Giovanna d'Arco | Nicola Vaccai | opera | Libretto by Gaetano Rossi. Premiered at La Fenice on 17 February 1827. |
| 1830 | Giovanna d'Arco | Giovanni Pacini | opera | Libretto by Gaetano Barbieri, after Schiller. Premiered at La Scala on 14 March 1830. |
| 1832 | Giovanna d'Arco | Gioachino Rossini | cantata | Anonymous text set for contralto and piano. Orchestral version by Salvatore Sciarrino. |
| 1837 | Joan of Arc | Michael William Balfe | opera | Premiered at Drury Lane on 30 November 1837 |
| 1845 | Giovanna d'Arco | Giuseppe Verdi | opera | Libretto by Temistocle Solera, after Schiller. Premiered at La Scala on 15 February 1845. |
| 1865 | Jeanne d'Arc | Gilbert Duprez | opera | Libretto by Joseph Méry, after Schiller. Premiered at Salle Le Peletier on 24 October 1865. |
| 1873–1877 | Jeanne d'Arc | Text by Jules Barbier; music by Charles Gounod. | drama | Incidental music for Barbier's play |
| 1878 | The Maid of Orleans | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | opera | Plot influenced by Schiller. |
| 1913 | Giovanna d'Arco | Marco Enrico Bossi | oratorio | Libretto by Luigi Orsini, after Schiller. |