This book examines the figure of Joan of Arc as depicted in stage works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially those based on or related to Schiller's 1801 romantic tragedy, Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans). The author elucidates Schiller's appropriation of themes from Euripides's Iphigenia plays, chiefly the quality of "sublime sanctity," which transforms Joan's image from a victim of fate to a warrior-prophet who changes history through sheer force of will. Finding the best-known works of his time about her - Voltaire's La pucelle d'Orléans and Shakespeare's Henry VI, part I - utterly dissatisfying, Schiller set out to replace them. Die Jungfrau von Orleans was a smashing success and inspired various subsequent treatments, including Verdi's opera Giovanna d'Arco and a translation by the father of Russian Romanticism, Vasily Zhukovsky, on which Tchaikovsky based his opera Orleanskaya deva (The Maid of Orleans). In turn, the book's final chapter examines Shaw'sSaint Joan and finds that the Irish playwright's vociferous complaints about Schiller's "romantic flapdoodle" belie a surprising affinity for Schiller's approach.

Auteur
John Pendergast is an Assistant Professor of Russian at West Point. He holds doctoral and master's degrees in Comparative Literature from the City University of New York, a master's degree in Russian Language and Literature from the University of Arizona, and a bachelor's degree in Music from Birmingham-Southern College. A graduate of the Russian program at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, his research focuses on music and letters of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russia and Germany.

Contenu
Chapter 1. The Palimpsest of Euripides, Shakespeare, and Voltaire
Part I. Euripides and IphigeniaPart II. Shakespeare and JoanPart III. Voltaire and JeanneChapter 2. Sublime Sanctity: Schiller's New Tragic JoanChapter 3. Lacuna and Enigma: Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco in Light of Schiller's PlayChapter 4. Patriotic Elegy and Epic Illusion: Schiller's Johanna in Russia Part I. Zhukovsky's Orleanskaya deva (Maid of Orleans)Part II. The Genesis of Tchaikovsky's Orleanskaya devaChapter 5. The Skeptic Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks: Shaw's Saint Joan. Concluding Thoughts on Joan in the Twentieth and Twenty-first CenturiesAppendicesAppendix 1. Table Comparing the Spelling of NamesAppendix 2. Translations of Johanna's Speech and Joan's Letter to Henry VIAppendix 3. Translations of Texts Cited in Chapter 4BibliographyAbbreviationsChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5End NotesChapter 1 NotesChapter 2 NotesChapter 3 NotesChapter 4 NotesChapter 5 NotesIndex