What about Joan? A fierce woman in combat? Medieval gender bender? Sandra Miesel has the inside scoop on Joan of Arc. From: Women's Quarterly | Date: January 1, 2002| Author: Miesel, Sandra | COPYRIGHT 2002 Independent Women's Forum. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

JOAN OF ARC is the one medieval figure everybody knows. But what they acknowledge varies wildly. To Shakespeare, Joan was a witch; to Shaw, a proto-Protestant; to Twain, a true saint in a godless universe. The poet Schiller and the composer Verdi added love interests to her story but left out death at the stake. Luc Besson portrayed her as a guilt-ridden hysteric in The Messenger (1999). Feminists embrace her as the heroic woman in the clutches of evil men who connive at her ruin. ...