For Fear of the Fire: Joan of Arc and the Limits of Subjectivity

269 Pages·2001·17.3 MB·English

by  Françoise Meltzer

FOR FEAR OF THE FIRE

FOR FEAR OF THE FIRE
JOAN 0 F ARC and the Limits of Subjectivity
Fran~oise Meltzer
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO & LONDON
Francroise Meltzer is chair of the Department of Comparative Literature and professor in
the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, the Divinity School, and the
College at the University of Chicago. She is the author of several works, including Hot
Property and Salome and the Dance of Writing, as well as a coeditor of Critical Inquiry.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2001 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2001
Printed in the United States of America
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 5 4 3 2 I
ISBN (cloth): 0-226-51981.3
ISBN (paper): 0-226-51981-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Meltzer, Francroise.
For fear of the fire: Joan of Arc and the limits of subjectivity /
Franc;:oise Meltzer.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-226-51981-3 (cloth) - ISBN 0-226-51982-1 (pbk.)
1. Joan, of Arc, Saint, 1412-1431. 2. Christian women saints-France
Biography. 3. Virginity. 4. France-History-Charles VII, 1422-1461.
I. Title.
DCI03.M45 2001
944' .026' 092-dc21
2001001083
@Thepaperused in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z3 9.48-1992.
For Claudie's chou Mae,
Jeanne Dumilieu
(who was never called Jeanne),
and for those who loved her

CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ix
INTRODUCTION:
THE SNOWS OF YESTERYEAR
CHAPTER ONE
THE BODY REVISITED
25
CHAPTER TWO
THE DISCOURSE OF VIRGINITY:
A FLIGHT BEFORE LIGHT
53
CHAPTER THREE
PROFESSIONS OF VIRGINITY
79
CHAPTER FOUR
RESPONSIO MORTIFERA:
THE VOICE OF THE MAID
CHAPTER FIVE
FEAR OF FI RE:
DEATH AND THE IMPOSSIBLE
165
CHAPTER SIX
FATHER, CAN'T YOU SEE I'M BURNING?
213
INDEX OF PROPER NAMES
A gallery ofp hotographs follows page 24

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Too long in the making, this book has constantly benefited from innu
merable friends, colleagues and students. I can only list the most obvious
here. They are all, of course, all to be held entirely responsible for any
mistakes or limitations from which this project frequently suffers.
First, my patient and taxed assistants over these several years: Peter
Struck, Mahnaz Fancy, Cindy Klestinec, David Simmons, and (magnifi
cent at the finish line) Joshua Yumibe. Between their faxes and photo
copies to France, frantic and disparate forms of communication, techno
logical wizardry, and general high standards of erudition that kept me
focused, they are to be pitied and admired at once. I am most grateful.
Thanks are long in coming as well to Margaret Jewett Burland, Arnold
Davidson, Jean-Luc Marion, and Yuri Tsivian. Their conversations and
bibliographic input have helped to make this book not only possible but
more plausible as well. Also to my friends Maureen Mclane and Susan
Schreiner, special thanks for brilliantly reading, comforting, and correct
ing at the eleventh (and a half) hour.
Various parts of this book have been given as lectures at, among other
places, the University of London, the Chicago Humanities Institute, the
Colloquium on Religion and Literature at the University of Chicago,
Yale, Western Ontario, Harvard, the University of Tel Aviv, the Einstein
Forum in Potsdam, Germany, and the International Comparative Litera
ture Association. I have, to put it mildly, greatly profited from all of the
discussions that ensued.
Previous, somewhat different, or related aspects of this study have ap
peared or will appear in the following: "Der Diskurs der Jungfraulich
keit, oder von der Geschlechtlichkeit des Heiligen," in Die Ungewisse
Eviden'{: Fur eine Kulturgeschichte des Beweises, ed. Gary Smith and
Matthias Kross (Berlin, I998); "Re-embodying: Virginity Secularized,"
in God, the Gift and Postmodernism, ed. John Caputo and Michael Scanlon
(Bloomington, Ind., I999), 260-28I; "Joan of Arc and the Celtic Tree: A
Fairy Tale," in Religion as Story, ed. Ingrid Schafer (Bloomington, Ind.,
forthcoming); "Mysticism Denied: The Trial of Joan of Arc," in Mystics:
Presence and Aporia, ed. Michael Kessler and Christian M. Sheppard
ix