ABSTRACT

Joan's uniquely powerful appropriation by the French Right finds its origins in the heroine's own time; this affinity is then traced from the French Revolution, through Michelet's history, and the founding of the Action Française to the present. Vichy's image of Joan is illumined by Nazi Germany's idealized woman. This analysis concludes with a plea for vigilance: those seduced by the "Joan phenomenon" sometimes neglect ominous portents of her political reception.