| Paper 804-b | Pucelle, Puzzel, or Puzzle?: Shakespeare's Elizabethan Joan of Arc
(Language: English)
Dianne E. Berg, Department of English, Tufts University, Massachusetts
Index terms: Gender Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Medievalism and Antiquarianism, Performance Arts - Drama |
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| Abstract | Paper -a:
This paper will examine the attitudes towards stability and wandering expressed by JRR Tolkien in his epic text The Lord of the Rings. I will investigate how the concepts are applied to the chief protagonists of the narrative as they move through various stages of the quest cycle. A key theme will be Tolkien's use of language to illustrate the ideas of homelessness and vagrancy as this applies to both 'heroes' and 'others'. The paper will include an examination of the way in which 'other' races are portrayed in both stable and wandering environments in relation to the travelling protagonists of the main narrative. I will also investigate the idea put forward by some scholars that homelessness is necessary for the completion of the quest.
Paper -b:
This paper examines Shakespeare's portrayal of the cross-dressing Joan of Arc as a lens through which Elizabethan anxieties about England's 'mannish' queen were refracted. Through his characterization of la Pucelle - another putative virgin wielding power in a man's world—Shakespeare could 'hold the mirror up to [the] nature' of his nation's central, defining paradox within the context of the playhouse. By interrogating the influence of Elizabeth's ambiguous persona on Shakespeare's portrait of another powerful, transgressive female, I explore how this Early Modern appropriation of a medieval French peasant addressed contemporary English concerns about gender roles, political power, and cultural identity.
Paper -c:
This paper examines specific techniques used by modern fantasy and historical fiction writers (Willis, Uttley, Chadwick, Pulman) to situate their work in the Middle Ages and examines how particular techniques create an effective sense of the past, including use of concrete examples and evocation of nostalgia. It will also discuss how each technique assists the reader to draw on their own understanding of the period and how, in the end, these techniques present an interpretation of the Middle Ages for the reader and provide them with a framework for historical understanding that can, at times, conflict with the frameworks used by specialist historians.
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