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Johnny Prophet
Jan. 26th, 2005 01:38 pmToday we talked about Joan of Arc, and that was good fun. The students' otherwise good textbook said, basically, that it was really complex and complicated, too complicated to discuss. I flung the book down in disgust when I read that. I mean, when I asked the students at the beginning of class to name any medieval women they knew of, Joan was the only name. So I gave them some stuff from her trial, and we went to work.
One of the big questions, of course, is trying to figure what's important about her transgressions in the eyes of her persecutors - gender, class, or that she was a thorn in the side of the English (and maybe the French).
Out of my mouth came the words, "Well, what if instead there was this fellow named John of Arc ..." It both was amusing (especially in the context of imagining HIM wearing women's clothes, a concept we quickly disbanded) and useful pedagogically, helping to isolate which problems came from what kinds of factors.
Anyway, the life of John of Arc as a concept amuses me.
One of the big questions, of course, is trying to figure what's important about her transgressions in the eyes of her persecutors - gender, class, or that she was a thorn in the side of the English (and maybe the French).
Out of my mouth came the words, "Well, what if instead there was this fellow named John of Arc ..." It both was amusing (especially in the context of imagining HIM wearing women's clothes, a concept we quickly disbanded) and useful pedagogically, helping to isolate which problems came from what kinds of factors.
Anyway, the life of John of Arc as a concept amuses me.
