For fear of the fire : Joan of Arc and the limits of subjectivity / Francoise Meltzer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Meltzer, Françoise.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Joan, of Arc, Saint, 1412-1431.

Joan.

Christian women saints--France--Biography.

Christian women saints.

Virginity.

France--History--Charles VII, 1422-1461.

France.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 248 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Why are contemporary secular theorists so frequently drawn to saints, martyrs, and questions of religion? Why has Joan of Arc fascinated some of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century? In a book that faces crucial issues in both critical and feminist inquiry, Françoise Meltzer uses the story of Joan as a guide for reading the postmodern nostalgia for a body that is intact and transparent. She argues that critics who place excessive emphasis on opposition and difference remain blind to their nostalgia for the pre-Cartesian idea that the body and mind are the same. Engaging a number of theorists, and alternating between Joan's historical and cultural context, Meltzer also explores the ways in which postmodern thinkers question subjectivity. She argues that the way masculine subjects imagine Joan betrays their fear of death and necessitates the role of women as cultural others: enigmatic, mysterious, dark, and impossible. As such, Joan serves as a useful model of the limits and risks of subjectivity. For Meltzer, she is both the first modern and the last medieval figure. From the ecclesial jury that burned her, to the theorists of today who deny their attraction to the supernatural, the philosophical assumptions that inform Joan's story, as Meltzer ultimately shows, have changed very little.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION: THE SNOWS OF YESTERYEAR

CHAPTER ONE. THE BODY REVISITED

CHAPTER TWO. THE DISCOURSE OF VIRGINITY: A FLIGHT BEFORE LIGHT

CHAPTER THREE. PROFESSIONS OF VIRGINITY

CHAPTER FOUR. RESPONSIO MORTIFERA: THE VOICE OF THE MAID

CHAPTER FIVE. FEAR OF FIRE: DEATH AND THE IMPOSSIBLE

CHAPTER SIX. FATHER, CAN'T YOU SEE I'M BURNING?

INDEX OF PROPER NAMES

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based upon print version of record.

ISBN:

9786612738463

9781282738461

1282738461

9780226519845

0226519848

OCLC:

658200303