Consider a set of facts known as “The Life of Joan of Arc.” For centuries celebrated writers have brought this woman to the stage, page, and screen, and each Joan is unique—Anouilh’s spiritual Joan, Shaw’s witty Joan, Brecht’s political Joan, Dreyer’s suffering Joan, Hollywood’s romantic warrior. In Shakespeare’s hands she became the lunatic Joan, a distinctly British point of view. Each Joan is divinely inspired, raises an army, defeats the English, burns at the stake. Joan’s facts are always the same, but whole genres shift while the “truth” of her life waits for the writer to find its
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