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Joan of Arc as cultural phenomenon is surprisingly present during this millennial era. The fascination with Joan's story reveals, I believe, a nostalgia for certainty in what is frequently (and loosely) called the postmodern era. There is something about Joan of Arc that appeals to the present obsession with blurred boundaries, and thus with the collapse of "clear" categories (of subjectivity, gender, power, the historical Church, and so on). At the same time, however, Joan's story tantalizes us today because of its unexplained passion and conviction. It seems to presuppose an unacknowledged apodictic which, for secular writers of contemporary theory, both confounds and attracts us. In this essay, I would like to contextualize aspects of Joan as instances of what might be called the "vestigial" traces of the issues she complicates. Metaphor and historical context are here to be understood as symbiotic.
On October 13th 1996, the Associated Press ran the following article:
A fiery reenactment of Joan of Arc's death— complete with a black-robed executioner burning a statue of the saint— prompted protests along with somber contemplation at Marquette University (in Milwaukee). "In the name of justice, I demand you stop!" a woman shouted as the "executioner" walked up and torched the statue. The burning Sunday night was the culmination of a two-week long commemoration of Joan of Arc's canonization at the private Catholic school. Joan of Arc is a revered figure at the campus, which has a chapel, brought stone by stone from overseas, where the teen-aged girl was said to have prayed for guidance before leading the armies of the dauphin Charles into battle against the English in 1429.The ceremony sparked debate in part because the papier-maché statue was holding a cross. Some called it blasphemous while others objected to the anti-women aspect of the funeral pyre. The school gospel choir refused to participate in the ceremony for "personal and religious reasons." One teacher noted, "I can't believe the things we do at this university in the name of Christianity."
In the ceremony, several corollary events had been organized: an iron cross emerged from inside the papier-maché effigy as it burned; there followed a sprinkling of water from the baptismal font on the embers; and finally, a dove was released "to...