Maid Of Orleans Research Articles

The Influence of V.A. Zhukovsky’s Works on the Concept of N.V. Gogol’s Novella “Taras Bulba”

The article reveals the influence of V.A. Zhukovsky’s works on the concept of N.V. Gogol’s novella “Taras Bulba”, which could have arisen as a result of the writer’s reception of the poet’s work. The analysis made it possible to detect a significant influence of V.A. Zhukovsky the concept of N.V. Gogol’s novella “Taras Bulba”. A number of similar points were highlighted in Gogol's novella “Taras Bulba” and Zhukovsky's dramatic poem “The Maid of Orleans”: civil issues, the image of a people's leader, and so on. Writers are equally interested in the end of the country's turning point, as well as gender aspects (male severity and female lyricism; male leader; female leader, etc.). There is a similarity between the images of Gogol’s Taras Bulba and Zhukovsky’s Ioanna (civil issues, the image of a people's leader, etc.). It is concluded that the writers were equally interested in the finale of the country's turning point, as well as certain gender aspects (male severity and female lyricism; male leader; female leader, etc.). The influence of Zhukovsky’s work on Gogol can also be evidenced by the allegory of the tempter, veiled in the image of the Pole, as well as the motive of punishment for choosing the dark side.

Reflection of Christian ideological orientation through liturgical symbolism in P. Tchaikovsky's opera music

This article examines the opera music by P.I. Tchaikovsky from the point of view of its Christian orientation as a leading trend in the development of the national opera style of the 19th century and the manifestation of liturgical symbolism in it at different levels of the musical and dramatic whole. Most of the opera compositions of the composer are investigated in the context of the manifestation of iconic elements of Christian culture in them, which is common to Western and Eastern European, with a later branching into two main branches: Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The main liturgical symbols in the drama and musical fabric of opera compositions are highlighted, their gradual increase in each subsequent opera composition by P. Tchaikovsky is noted, in connection with the composer's search for spiritual truths and his appeal to certain subjects, which became the basis for the libretto of opera compositions. The greatest attention is paid to the composer's late operas: “The Maid of Orleans” and “Iolanta”, as compositions with the most pronounced symbolism of the Christian cultural tradition. The question of the manifestation of liturgical symbolism at different levels is revealed: from the general dominant idea of the composition, which can be defined as the main line of drama, its deep focus, to more particular ones, through certain dramatic, stylistic, musical techniques and verbal texts, to musical and intonational formulas, intonation stable complexes, which over time received the status of a symbol, a certain sign of a complex expression of the liturgical musical and intonational, verbal and semantic field, became rhetorical figurations, such as “Rest with the Saints” in the Orthodox tradition and “Dies irea” in the Catholic

«Франческа да Римини» Сергея Рахманинова в её связях с оперным творчеством Петра Чайковского

“Francesca da Rimini” by Rachmaninoff is an opera which still undeservedly remains at the periphery of scholarly attention and producers’ interest, not least due to its existing reputation as an unsuccessful musical composition. The article poses the question of the role of intertextuality in the dramaturgy and conception of “Francesca” through the demonstration of the literary and musical parallels with Tchaikovsky’s operas, which creates a new context for the comprehension and interpretation of Rachmaninoff’s opera. Its genre-related and compositional resemblance to “Iolanta,” the plotline and literary interconnections with “The Queen of Spades,” the musical references to “Mazepa,” “The Maid of Orleans” and “Iolanta” make it possible to perceive “Francesca” as a new stage in the comprehension of the theme of the human being and fate, the issues of making decisions and their tragic consequences, the correlation of human actions with the value system of the religious worldview. The allusions placed into the context of the musical language of the 20th century (the chromatic pitch system, expanded tonality, microthematicism) function in the opera’s intonational dramaturgy as symbols which define its semantic density and make it possible to concretize its conception. They create a semantical implication, impressing not as much the storyline, as much the profound philosophical connection between the artistic world of “Francesca” with the conceptual constants of Tchaikovsky’s operas, which in themselves are close to Rachmaninoff’s world perception. Keywords: Sergei Rachmaninoff, “Francesca da Rimini,” Pyotr Tchaikovsky, “Iolanta,” “Mazepa,” “The Maid of Orleans,” intertextuality.

Жанна д’Арк: А был ли пророк? Размышления над монографией О. И. Тогоевой «Еретичка, ставшая святой»

This article is devoted to the analysis of the concept of O. I. Togoeva, proposed by her as a research method in the monograph «The heretic, who became holy». In it, the author attempted to prove that the national heroine of France, Jeanne d’Arc, was a visionary, a prophet who had predicted individual events of the Hundred Years War. Since contemporaries were not sure who its prophecies come from - from God or from the Devil, we had to perform several procedures using the «discretio spirituum» method, that is, the « discerning of spirits». The first two, held in Chinon and in Poitiers in the spring of 1429, ended with the acquittal of Joan of Arc, the third, completed in Rouen in 1431, with an accusation, and finally, the last - in 1450-1456, - restoration of a good name. One may agree that some contemporaries considered Joan of Arc as a prophet or presented her as a prophet, but the fact that the Maid of Orleans really was a prophet remained unproved. The article shows that other interpretations of the mission of Joan of Arc and her actions are possible, including an explanation of her actions not as a prophet, but as one of the captains of the royal army.

Joan’s of Arc Aria No. 7 from the opera "The Maid of Orleans" by P. Tchaikovsky: the spiritual symbolism of the canon of repentance when "trialed under the sign"

The article examines the spiritual symbols of the musical and sound structure of Joan’s Aria No. 7 " Forgive me, hills and native fields " from the opera "The Maid of Orleans" by P. Tchaikovsky. The subject of the study is the iconic expositional characteristics of the dramatic development of the image of the protagonist of the opera as a vividly representative historical and symbolic phenomenon, expressed through the centuries-old context of musical spiritual symbols. "Liturgy of John Chrysostom" and "The Maid of Orleans" were marked by a powerful creative core, bravely creating a new level of thinking, opening new opportunities for the Transfiguration. P. Tchaikovsky reflected deeply on the spiritual quality of the man. By the wisdom of the Gospel postulates, one can realize how indissolubly these two works have merged together: "Divine Liturgy" and the history of the Divine feat of the main heroine of the opera. The birth of a new spiritual quality in Tchaikovsky’s music was accompanied by a sufficiently strong resistance of the surrounding psychological field of belief and world outlook. The composer had been working on the opera for about 9 months, which is associatively comparable to the bearing and birth of his "spiritual child". The spiritual meaning of the genre canvas of Aria is liturgical which is the canon of repentance. Syncretism of symbols manifested in systems of semantic and genre assimilation is represented by rhetorical signs and baroque genres. The ostinato spiritual and psychological Credo of the personality of Joan of Arc is explained - 1) in her legendary 19-year-old life, a young peasant girl who could not read and write possessed the greatest gift of purity of thoughts and an unshakable faith in the Spiritual World, which governs the earth; 2) she had intuitive-hearted Mercy to her persecutors, enemies, executioners; 3) she subtly felt the highest signs and symbols that were inaccessible and incomprehensible to her surroundings and contemporaries; 4) Joan at her own and sole discretion considered the form, colors and meanings of her symbols – a white embroidered banner, a coat of arms with holy symbols and a sword that she used only to defend and repel the blows. We should pay attention to the fact that both the composer and the heroine of the the "font" of the spirit materializes. Hence, perhaps, the source of the inner potential of spirituality for the related and beloved female images in his works, embodied by the composer one after another – Tatiana and Joan, – being so distant historically and socially from one another are both so close to the great spiritual potential and victorious level of morality, invigorated by the naturalness of the free space of nature, the inner beauty and sincere kindness, concealing the heroic courage of female charm behind the delicate refinement, able to illuminate many generations of people with the centuries-old example to follow. The 18-year-old Joan at the moment of exhibiting the image in the first act of the opera is shown in the vital fullness of a thinking person, who can follow her Divine Principle. The dramaturgic line of Joan is a mono opera of Spirit in the whole opera. In the context of the analysis of the melody, there attracts attention the symbol of harmony of the "lyrics of light" with the intonations of the achieved through much suffering world of the loving heart – the rhetorical formula of the Baroque era - the figures of "pathopoija:" the excitement of passions " parrhesa "," relatio non harmonia ". In the melody of Aria, there is a tension that arises under another symbol, but does not go into it, but psychologically preserves the previous harmony through inclination to the main tonic. This symbol in music of different styles and creative interpretation in the article is defined as "trial under the sign" - powerful in its might, which originates from the environment of reflective knowledge of the Spirit. In the Aria melody, the symbol tirata is not associated, as is customary, with a "shot" or "lightning," but is a symbol of a sparkling spiritual instrument – a sword. Such is embodied in a rather rare image of St. Nicholas the Miracle-Worker, for example, on the icon in the Church of the Holy Trinity in the monastery of St. Iona in Kiev. Saint Nicholas is depicted with a mighty sword, passionately raised vertically upward in the name of protecting holy justice. The sword is also associated with the power of the spiritual thought-arrow, reflected in the symbols of the graphic hooked notation of Kievan Rus.

Joan’s of Arc Aria No. 7 from the opera "The Maid of Orleans" by P. Tchaikovsky: the spiritual symbolism of the canon of repentance when "trialed under the sign"

The article examines the spiritual symbols of the musical and sound structure of Joan’s Aria No. 7 " Forgive me, hills and native fields " from the opera "The Maid of Orleans" by P. Tchaikovsky. The subject of the study is the iconic expositional characteristics of the dramatic development of the image of the protagonist of the opera as a vividly representative historical and symbolic phenomenon, expressed through the centuries-old context of musical spiritual symbols. "Liturgy of John Chrysostom" and "The Maid of Orleans" were marked by a powerful creative core, bravely creating a new level of thinking, opening new opportunities for the Transfiguration. P. Tchaikovsky reflected deeply on the spiritual quality of the man. By the wisdom of the Gospel postulates, one can realize how indissolubly these two works have merged together: "Divine Liturgy" and the history of the Divine feat of the main heroine of the opera. The birth of a new spiritual quality in Tchaikovsky’s music was accompanied by a sufficiently strong resistance of the surrounding psychological field of belief and world outlook. The composer had been working on the opera for about 9 months, which is associatively comparable to the bearing and birth of his "spiritual child". The spiritual meaning of the genre canvas of Aria is liturgical which is the canon of repentance. Syncretism of symbols manifested in systems of semantic and genre assimilation is represented by rhetorical signs and baroque genres. The ostinato spiritual and psychological Credo of the personality of Joan of Arc is explained - 1) in her legendary 19-year-old life, a young peasant girl who could not read and write possessed the greatest gift of purity of thoughts and an unshakable faith in the Spiritual World, which governs the earth; 2) she had intuitive-hearted Mercy to her persecutors, enemies, executioners; 3) she subtly felt the highest signs and symbols that were inaccessible and incomprehensible to her surroundings and contemporaries; 4) Joan at her own and sole discretion considered the form, colors and meanings of her symbols – a white embroidered banner, a coat of arms with holy symbols and a sword that she used only to defend and repel the blows. We should pay attention to the fact that both the composer and the heroine of the the "font" of the spirit materializes. Hence, perhaps, the source of the inner potential of spirituality for the related and beloved female images in his works, embodied by the composer one after another – Tatiana and Joan, – being so distant historically and socially from one another are both so close to the great spiritual potential and victorious level of morality, invigorated by the naturalness of the free space of nature, the inner beauty and sincere kindness, concealing the heroic courage of female charm behind the delicate refinement, able to illuminate many generations of people with the centuries-old example to follow. The 18-year-old Joan at the moment of exhibiting the image in the first act of the opera is shown in the vital fullness of a thinking person, who can follow her Divine Principle. The dramaturgic line of Joan is a mono opera of Spirit in the whole opera. In the context of the analysis of the melody, there attracts attention the symbol of harmony of the "lyrics of light" with the intonations of the achieved through much suffering world of the loving heart – the rhetorical formula of the Baroque era - the figures of "pathopoija:" the excitement of passions " parrhesa "," relatio non harmonia ". In the melody of Aria, there is a tension that arises under another symbol, but does not go into it, but psychologically preserves the previous harmony through inclination to the main tonic. This symbol in music of different styles and creative interpretation in the article is defined as "trial under the sign" - powerful in its might, which originates from the environment of reflective knowledge of the Spirit. In the Aria melody, the symbol tirata is not associated, as is customary, with a "shot" or "lightning," but is a symbol of a sparkling spiritual instrument – a sword. Such is embodied in a rather rare image of St. Nicholas the Miracle-Worker, for example, on the icon in the Church of the Holy Trinity in the monastery of St. Iona in Kiev. Saint Nicholas is depicted with a mighty sword, passionately raised vertically upward in the name of protecting holy justice. The sword is also associated with the power of the spiritual thought-arrow, reflected in the symbols of the graphic hooked notation of Kievan Rus.

Giovanna d'Arco, una storia senza tempo

Since the Third Republic on, Joan of Arc has always been present in French political discourse. Fixed in collective memory through the way history is taught in French educational system, the Maid of Orleans represents nowadays a symbol of national identity that political parties compete for.

Helmers, Rutger Not Russian Enough? Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in Nineteenth-Century Russian Opera (review)

SEER, 94, 2, APRIL 2016 340 mission: ‘to borrow Nabokov back from the scholars’ (p. 7) and to demonstrate the ways in which Nabokov transformed himself into an American writer. Some may think that he achieves his aims, but the character he portrays is rarely appealing, inspiring bewilderment more than wonder, whilst the provocative, audacious America into which Nabokov so eagerly immersed himself is reduced, by the end of the book, to something drab and indistinct. Others, therefore, might feel better served by going back to Boyd and Schiff, and to the letters, interviews and reminiscences, and ultimately to the texts themselves, for it is through these that the real Nabokov and his world come truly and vividly to life. UCL SSEES Barbara Wyllie Helmers, Rutger. Not Russian Enough? Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in Nineteenth-Century Russian Opera. Eastman Studies in Music. University of Rochester Press, Rochester, NY, 2014. xvi + 233 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Musical examples. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £55.00. Nationalism has been such a decisive and productive category in Russian music studies for some time now, so it is refreshing to see Rutger Helmers’ emphasis on the neglected, yet equally significant notion of cosmopolitanism. Amply justified by the quality of his interpretations of four nineteenth-century operas, Helmers’ approach illuminates an inherent tension in Russian culture that goes back to at least the Petrine reforms, when ‘Western art music and opera were among the many imports that came to Russia in the course of the eighteenth century’ (p. 4). Nonetheless, a tendency to assume that Russian operacanonlydealwithsubjectstakenfromnationallifeandhistoryhasmeant that a number of key works have been overlooked in criticism and scholarship; furthermore, even canonical works in the supposedly ‘nationalist’ tradition evince cosmopolitan elements that refute a single, stable interpretation in terms of their innate, or essential Russianness. Challenging such assumptions, Helmers takes four operas and examines the relationship between nationalism and cosmopolitanism in both their genesis and reception. Strikingly, he begins with Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar, widely seen as the foundational work of the Russian national opera tradition, yet equally a work that found itself at the centre of a polemic about national identity in music in the nineteenth century. Arguing that Glinka adapted much of the musical language of the work from contemporary Italian examples (most notably Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and Bellini’s La sonnambula, both of which the composer heard in Milan in 1830– 31), Helmers advances an interpretation of the work in terms of its musical and national hybridity. His next chapter — on Serov’s Judith — illuminates the REVIEWS 341 role played by Old Testament narratives in the history of Russian opera. Here, Helmers suggests that contemporary audiences might well have read the plot as an allegory of the recent Siege of Sevastopol (there are perhaps unintentional echoes here of the reception history of Handel’s oratorios in Hanoverian London), and uncovers a debate about the appropriateness of using either Russian national or oriental music to depict the opposing forces in the Biblical story. The next opera to be considered is Chaikovskii’s Maid of Orleans, whose German source text (a play by Schiller), French subject matter and Russian composer have long proved a stumbling block for critics and audiences alike. Finally, Helmers explores Rimskii-Korsakov’s Tsar’s Bride, which — despite its echt-nationalist subject matter — marks a departure from the values of the nationalist school, constituting a stylistic embrace of the melodic charm of Mozart and the Italian school instead. Not Russian Enough? Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in NineteenthCentury Russian Opera is certainly a welcome contribution to the history of Russian music, and its analysis of the ‘various cosmopolitan practices and discourses’ (p. 159) that were inherent in nationalism is timely. If its handling of nationalism is well rooted in the existing secondary literature, one might still wish for a more nuanced and critical handling of the notion of cosmopolitanism, which here seems to figure primarily as the attempt ‘to transcend the petty bordersbetweennational cultures’ (p. 159). This is true as far as it goes, but what is the specific intellectual, cultural, political and ideological role of cosmopolitanism within nineteenth century Russia, which functioned as a multilingual and multi-ethnic empire, yet...

“The Maid of Orleans”: Schiller and Tchaikovsky

For the first time, the article considers the artistic dialogue between Schiller’s tragedy “The Maid of Orleans” and the eponymous opera by Tchaikovsky. The selected perspective allows the author to reveal various aspects of creative individuality of the German dramatist and the Russian composer. Whereas Schiller emphasizes the sublime heroism so that the ascent of the heroine to eternal life becomes the main storyline in his drama, Tchaikovsky makes the plot take a turn towards a tragedy. This significantly changes the balance of semantic accents in the opera. In particular, a number of characters surrounding Joan receive a new interpretation. Tchaikovsky enters into a dialogue not only with Schiller’s tragedy, but also with the genre of French Grand Romantic Opera, creating an original composition with a focused and dynamic development, and major symphonic generalizations as well. The relevance of this dialogue for the development of the theme of Joan of Arc’s heroism in the twentieth-century art is underlined in the conclusion.

Amor Hereos , or How One Brother Was Visited by an Invisible Being : Lived Spirituality among Russian Freemasons in the 1810s

There was nothing else for it; I got down to those books which now been found; so imagine me, a 19th-century man, poring over huge folios and assiduously reading their content: on prime matter, on elemental electricity, on the soul of the sun, on northern dampness, on stellar spirits and all sorts of things like that. It is amusing, and tedious, and interesting. --V.F. Odoevskii, The Sylph The spirits' realm is easy to tear open, They lie there waiting under a thin cover, And, hearing quietly, they storm aloft. --F. Schiller, The Maid of Orleans In a folder of Masonic papers from the archive of Sergei Stepanovich Lanskoi and Stepan Vasil'evich Ieshevskii, which contains accounts of mysterious events from the lives of late 18th-/early 19th-century Russian freemasons, I found a curious correspondence between two elder Masons regarding a third, more junior one, who entered into physical with an invisible being. (1) This being, as the brother admitted to his guide, been visiting him constantly since the summer of 1819, generally entering his body through his belly and causing him incomparable spiritual and physical pleasure. He felt first a kind of gentle envelopment take hold of him, which strove toward his breast and was always directed toward his heart. Then the contact occasionally became livelier and quite palpable, to the point where his whole body was suffused with a kind of fire, more delightful than painful, and, having finally entered him, this being took rest in him, luxuriated, and generally made its presence felt in the most delightful manner, never arousing in him any kind of evil thoughts or carnal desires. These visitations could take place at any time of the day or night and in any situation, but more often than not they took place when the brother was in bed. This brother's mentor turned to a certain authoritative Moscow addressee with the question of what this being was and what to do in case of such contact. In his letter, he gave a detailed description of the character of the sensations experienced by his apprentice, the external circumstances of the visitations, their consequences, the measures taken by the brethren, and the character and biography of this Mason. It was specially noted that according to the brother, the visitations did not elicit in him any carnal desires but, quite the contrary, were accompanied by pious thoughts. Meanwhile, once, during his sleep (late at night), he was given a kiss so tangible that he awoke and could still feel its sweetness. It seemed to him that he been kissed upon the lips and tongue. After this, the usual visitations continued. In his short reply the Moscow Mason indicated that this was an exceptionally important event, and he supposed that the brother in question entered into with one of the elemental spirits of the female sex, the good or evil nature of which could be ascertained only by means of careful inquiries and prayers; until then he needed to take care and not betray the being with any other woman. In the answer that concluded the correspondence, the mentor wrote that his apprentice tearfully confessed that some of the visitations by the being had concluded in an impure manner, i.e., with physical arousal and even ejaculation. This revelation frightened his brethren, and they demanded that he refuse communication with this dangerous guest. He obeyed, but he grew bored and cold. After some time, however, the being visited him again, spoke with him for the first time, and called herself his beloved and friend. With that the correspondence, dated by its authors December 1819-March 1820, breaks off. This manuscript consists of two parts, written on paper of different formats: the first two letters (the inquiry of the Petersburg Mason and the reply with the instructions of his Moscow correspondent) are on four large sewn sheets of grayish paper; (2) the third letter (the new message of the Petersburg Mason, entitled Continuation) is on two sheets of a smaller size with paper watermarks from 1818. …

The French Exception: Still So Special? by Andrew Jack (review)

Continental Drift:From National Characters toVirtual Subjects. By EMILY APTER. Chicago and London:Universityof Chicago Press. I999. xv + 285 pp. ?I5.25. In this challenging and thought-provoking book, Emily Apter maps the gradual erosion of the nation-state by the forces of globalization, or 'multinational nationalism'. Through an analysis of some of the cultural products of French colonial history,Apter rereadssuch 'national characters'asJoan of Arc, Flaubert, and AlbertCamus, re-presentingthem as 'virtualsubjects'.An intriguinggalleryof photographsaccompanies the writtentext, placing the readerin the uncomfortable position of re-enacting colonial desire whilst simultaneouslytrying to dismantle it. Such 'colonial tourism',Apter claims, is the essence of much postcolonial criticism. Indeed, Continental Drift suggests interesting if disconcerting parallels between apparentlyvery different'national subjects':Jean-Marie Le Pen's appropriationof 'The Maid of Orleans' as a symbolof national chauvinismadds a discomfitinglayer to the mystificationof Fanonas an icon of blackmasculinity,demonstratedin Isaac Julien's Channel 4 film. The rangeof subjectsin thisbookisimpressive:literature,politics,psychoanalysis, photography, music, film, art, and cyberspace. Moreover, Apter's commentary moves easilybetween them, consideringnot only francophonetexts and imagesbut also Afrofuturismand American cyberpunk.In the introduction,Apter writesthat she aims to broaden the scope of what is traditionallyknown as Frenchstudies, as well as to close the gap (the 'continental drift') between the United States and France. This 'continental drift' signals not only the North American academy's disaffectionwith Frenchcriticaltheoryin the age of culturalstudiesbut also French academics' lack of engagement with postcolonialism. Apter's book, following the work of scholars such as Christopher Miller, points to ways in which 'French postcolonial criticismcould reinvigoratethe linksbetween political philosophy and literary/cultural analysis' (p. 4). The future of postcolonialism, Apter suggests, is encapsulated in the figure of the cyborg. Drawing on Donna Haraway's famous 'Manifesto for Cyborgs' as well as the cyberpunk narratives of writers such as William Gibson, Apter presents cyborgs as 'quintessential, "hybrid"postcolonial subjects'(p. 2 6). Whilst Apter recognizes that the lack of agency in the notion of 'cyberidentity'is incompatible with postcolonial identity politics, she nevertheless predicts that 'postcolonialtheory and aestheticpractice will "cyberize"themselves quite soon (if they haven't already),pushing the envelope of the politics of global subjectivityas they place the diaspora on-line' (p. 223). Such a prediction places Continental Drift at the cutting edge of francophone and postcolonial studies, and moves beyond Paul Gilroy's'BlackAtlantic'to a 'DigitalDiaspora'. UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM NICKI HITCHCOTT The FrenchException: Still So Special? By ANDREWJACK. London: Profile Books. 1999. 298 pp. ?1I6.99. Andrew Jack's assessment of the state of la specificite franfaisewill inevitably be compared toJohn Ardagh'sfrequentlyupdated TheNewFrance, if only because it is the work of a journalist rather than an academic:Jack's book is the fruit of four years'workas a Financial Timescorrespondentin Parisbetween 1994 and 1998, and of the numerous interviews he was able to undertake with political and public figures as well as heads of civil service departments and private industry.After a heavy round of promotional appearanceson Frenchradio stationsand on the Pivot television showBouillon deculture (on 8 October 1999)to markthe appearanceof the Continental Drift:From National Characters toVirtual Subjects. By EMILY APTER. Chicago and London:Universityof Chicago Press. I999. xv + 285 pp. ?I5.25. In this challenging and thought-provoking book, Emily Apter maps the gradual erosion of the nation-state by the forces of globalization, or 'multinational nationalism'. Through an analysis of some of the cultural products of French colonial history,Apter rereadssuch 'national characters'asJoan of Arc, Flaubert, and AlbertCamus, re-presentingthem as 'virtualsubjects'.An intriguinggalleryof photographsaccompanies the writtentext, placing the readerin the uncomfortable position of re-enacting colonial desire whilst simultaneouslytrying to dismantle it. Such 'colonial tourism',Apter claims, is the essence of much postcolonial criticism. Indeed, Continental Drift suggests interesting if disconcerting parallels between apparentlyvery different'national subjects':Jean-Marie Le Pen's appropriationof 'The Maid of Orleans' as a symbolof national chauvinismadds a discomfitinglayer to the mystificationof Fanonas an icon of blackmasculinity,demonstratedin Isaac Julien's Channel 4 film. The rangeof subjectsin thisbookisimpressive:literature,politics,psychoanalysis, photography, music, film, art, and cyberspace. Moreover, Apter's commentary moves easilybetween them, consideringnot only francophonetexts and imagesbut also Afrofuturismand American cyberpunk.In the introduction,Apter writesthat she aims to...

Continental Drift: From National Characters to Virtual Subjects by Emily Apter (review)

Continental Drift:From National Characters toVirtual Subjects. By EMILY APTER. Chicago and London:Universityof Chicago Press. I999. xv + 285 pp. ?I5.25. In this challenging and thought-provoking book, Emily Apter maps the gradual erosion of the nation-state by the forces of globalization, or 'multinational nationalism'. Through an analysis of some of the cultural products of French colonial history,Apter rereadssuch 'national characters'asJoan of Arc, Flaubert, and AlbertCamus, re-presentingthem as 'virtualsubjects'.An intriguinggalleryof photographsaccompanies the writtentext, placing the readerin the uncomfortable position of re-enacting colonial desire whilst simultaneouslytrying to dismantle it. Such 'colonial tourism',Apter claims, is the essence of much postcolonial criticism. Indeed, Continental Drift suggests interesting if disconcerting parallels between apparentlyvery different'national subjects':Jean-Marie Le Pen's appropriationof 'The Maid of Orleans' as a symbolof national chauvinismadds a discomfitinglayer to the mystificationof Fanonas an icon of blackmasculinity,demonstratedin Isaac Julien's Channel 4 film. The rangeof subjectsin thisbookisimpressive:literature,politics,psychoanalysis, photography, music, film, art, and cyberspace. Moreover, Apter's commentary moves easilybetween them, consideringnot only francophonetexts and imagesbut also Afrofuturismand American cyberpunk.In the introduction,Apter writesthat she aims to broaden the scope of what is traditionallyknown as Frenchstudies, as well as to close the gap (the 'continental drift') between the United States and France. This 'continental drift' signals not only the North American academy's disaffectionwith Frenchcriticaltheoryin the age of culturalstudiesbut also French academics' lack of engagement with postcolonialism. Apter's book, following the work of scholars such as Christopher Miller, points to ways in which 'French postcolonial criticismcould reinvigoratethe linksbetween political philosophy and literary/cultural analysis' (p. 4). The future of postcolonialism, Apter suggests, is encapsulated in the figure of the cyborg. Drawing on Donna Haraway's famous 'Manifesto for Cyborgs' as well as the cyberpunk narratives of writers such as William Gibson, Apter presents cyborgs as 'quintessential, "hybrid"postcolonial subjects'(p. 2 6). Whilst Apter recognizes that the lack of agency in the notion of 'cyberidentity'is incompatible with postcolonial identity politics, she nevertheless predicts that 'postcolonialtheory and aestheticpractice will "cyberize"themselves quite soon (if they haven't already),pushing the envelope of the politics of global subjectivityas they place the diaspora on-line' (p. 223). Such a prediction places Continental Drift at the cutting edge of francophone and postcolonial studies, and moves beyond Paul Gilroy's'BlackAtlantic'to a 'DigitalDiaspora'. UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM NICKI HITCHCOTT The FrenchException: Still So Special? By ANDREWJACK. London: Profile Books. 1999. 298 pp. ?1I6.99. Andrew Jack's assessment of the state of la specificite franfaisewill inevitably be compared toJohn Ardagh'sfrequentlyupdated TheNewFrance, if only because it is the work of a journalist rather than an academic:Jack's book is the fruit of four years'workas a Financial Timescorrespondentin Parisbetween 1994 and 1998, and of the numerous interviews he was able to undertake with political and public figures as well as heads of civil service departments and private industry.After a heavy round of promotional appearanceson Frenchradio stationsand on the Pivot television showBouillon deculture (on 8 October 1999)to markthe appearanceof the Continental Drift:From National Characters toVirtual Subjects. By EMILY APTER. Chicago and London:Universityof Chicago Press. I999. xv + 285 pp. ?I5.25. In this challenging and thought-provoking book, Emily Apter maps the gradual erosion of the nation-state by the forces of globalization, or 'multinational nationalism'. Through an analysis of some of the cultural products of French colonial history,Apter rereadssuch 'national characters'asJoan of Arc, Flaubert, and AlbertCamus, re-presentingthem as 'virtualsubjects'.An intriguinggalleryof photographsaccompanies the writtentext, placing the readerin the uncomfortable position of re-enacting colonial desire whilst simultaneouslytrying to dismantle it. Such 'colonial tourism',Apter claims, is the essence of much postcolonial criticism. Indeed, Continental Drift suggests interesting if disconcerting parallels between apparentlyvery different'national subjects':Jean-Marie Le Pen's appropriationof 'The Maid of Orleans' as a symbolof national chauvinismadds a discomfitinglayer to the mystificationof Fanonas an icon of blackmasculinity,demonstratedin Isaac Julien's Channel 4 film. The rangeof subjectsin thisbookisimpressive:literature,politics,psychoanalysis, photography, music, film, art, and cyberspace. Moreover, Apter's commentary moves easilybetween them, consideringnot only francophonetexts and imagesbut also Afrofuturismand American cyberpunk.In the introduction,Apter writesthat she aims to...

Tchaikovsky and His World

This volume considers the music and biography of Tchaikovsky, with an emphasis on his later life and influences. The text includes some of Tchaikovsky's own writings about music, as well as three articles from the 1993 Tubingen conference commemorating the centennial of Tchaikovsky's death. The first part of the book includes an examination of the world of realist art that was so influential in Tchaikovsky's day, and insights into Tchaikovsky's influence on the next generation of artists. The second part of the book presents findings from archival explorations in the composer's home of Klin, Russia, and the third part of the book includes Nikolai Kashkin's 1879 review of Tchaikovsky's controversial opera Orleanskaia Deva (The Maid of Orleans).

The Americanization of Clarissa

The Americanization of Clarissa Leonard Tennenhouse (bio) In his Pulitzer-Prize winning book, The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Gordon Wood lists Clarissa among such works as The Vicar of Wakefield and Chesterfield’s Letters which Americans cherished for warning them against “[t]he evils of parental tyranny and the harsh and arbitrary modes of child rearing of an older and more sage age.” 1 Nor is this distinguished American historian alone in suggesting the influence of Richardson’s novels on a pre-Revolutionary American readership. In making his claim, Wood draws on Jay Fliegelman’s influential Prodigals and Pilgrims: The American Revolution Against Patriarchal Authority, which argues that Samuel Richardson’s heroines can be listed among the many victims of patriarchal tyranny whose stories fed growing colonial animosity toward king and Parliament. By virtue of its criticism of an authoritarian father, Fliegelman contends, Clarissa’s fate “offers more than a conveniently invoked literary parallel to America’s flight from its parental tyrant, England. . . .” 2 Indeed, if he had his way, we would imagine Richardson’s heroine “was to the eighteenth century what the Maid of Orleans had been to the fifteenth: a martyred heroine who had led a revolutionary cause.” 3 Tantalizing as I find this explanation for Richardson’s appeal to a colonial readership, I must question its presupposition that such readers could have responded so enthusiastically only to a plot which translated directly into their political relationship with England. Such a one-to-one relationship between fiction and politics raises at least as many questions as it answers. First is the obvious gender discrepancy: Clarissa is a girl. If in England she demonstrated a distinctly feminine power, the power of passive aggression, then we have to ask ourselves how, once in America, the same character could suddenly turn into an active revolutionary. Even assuming that Richardson’s American readers would have linked Richardson’s heroine iconographically with Joan of Arc, we still have to deal with the fact that Clarissa did not lead armies into battle. Nor, for that matter, did the various kinds of American fiction published in imitation of Richardson—beginning in the late 1780s and running for about thirty years—celebrate women who engaged in the Revolutionary struggle. 4 Beyond his own ingenious reading of Richardson, Fliegelman provides no basis for thinking that Americans would have been willing to imagine themselves as rebellious daughters during the pre-Revolutionary period. Further troubling his reading is a historical discrepancy. If Clarissa was indeed popular for ideological reasons before the Revolution, when readers could presumably sympathize with a rebellious daughter, then on what basis would the story of a rebellious daughter have gained in popular appeal during the years following American independence from England? For gain it did. [End Page 177] The mainstream of American novel criticism tells a contrasting masculine history of American literature, which in turn presupposes a different basis for national identity. Despite the pioneer work of such feminist literary historians as Cathy Davidson and Jane Tompkins, the great tradition of American fiction—as established by the authors of the 1917 Cambridge History of American Literature, rearticulated by F. O. Matthiessen, and supplemented by Leslie Fiedler—remains well entrenched. When it comes to literary value, we do not pay homage so much to the domestic novel as we do to the tradition that runs from Cooper through Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, and James on to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner. If one characterizes the English tradition as feminine by virtue of its strong domestic tradition, then it is only reasonable to gender the American novel masculine. Compelling arguments on behalf of what Tompkins calls “the other American Renaissance” and Shirley Samuels, “the culture of sentiment” have not yet dislodged the enduring equation between American fiction and a boy’s adventure story of westward expansion, frontier encounters, racial struggles, and great metaphysical contests, all of which reproduce in secular form the heritage of the puritan fathers. 5 Both the tradition of reading and the narrative form of the novel seem to weight the scale between one of two gendered options. Fliegelman actually confirms this faith in the masculinism of our literary tradition, paradoxically, when he translates the...

Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross-Dressing in Medieval Europe by Valerie Hotchkiss (review)

REVIEWS115 earthly, materialistic and even pethaps petty and mundane than previously thought. It's an interesting perspective, and the decidedly new historicist anti-romantic view ofthe poet may be the direction ofthe future. Finally, as Gawain learns, no one is perfect enough to escape without at least a slight nick on the neck. The one slight 'fault' here is that these essays provide such a consensus, especially in regard to reading SGGK, that they give uniformly short shrift to some currents that a companion to these poems ought to acknowledge. For example, several ofthe essays are completely dismissive of'anthropological readings' but are so cavalier that they threaten to throw dieperle out with the clot. Since most contributors allude to such readings as discredited, it would be good to explain what such readings were, why they were attractive, what they added, and what fossils remain. The same could, of course, be said ofthe tendency of most ofthe Gawain essays to dismiss much ofcontemporary Gawain criticism as too 'serious-minded' without answering some ofthe same questions. Readers new to the poem would be well served by having a clearer sense of what is being rejected, but the contributors here, while often dismissing the body of such readings, are often too courteous to name names. Still, this bur is an easy one to abide, requiring hardly any patience at all. In the end, this volume's editors have produced a boon companion, an essential guide, for those setting out to explore to world of this fascinating poet. JULIAN WASSERMAN Loyola University, New Orleans valerie hotchkiss, Clothes Make the Man.Female Cross-Dressing in MedievalEurope. New York: Garland Press, 1996. The New Middle Ages, vol. 1. Pp. 200. isbn: 0-81532369 -7. $30. Valerie Hotchkiss very effectively synthesizes a large body of diverse medieval texts about female cross-dressing----historical, literary, theological and juridical—to analyze constructions ofgender identity in the Middle Ages. In a nutshell, Hotchkiss argues that 'the medieval fascination with the transvestite' demonstrates a collective desire of patriarchal society for images of female heroism. That is the good news. The bad news is that while female transvestitism satisfied that desire, at the same time it undetscoted the hegemony ofpatriarchal power relations. Hotchkiss claims that while female cross-dressing represented a positive cultural yearning for empowered women, it ultimately entrenched a dualistic hierarchy of male over female. Hotchkiss argues her case via a broad scope of medieval texts including a chapter on each of the following: virgin transvestite holy women, the transvestite 'monk' Hildegund ofSchonau (tn88), the French liberator Joan ofArc ("("1431), the popular legend ofthe female pope, the disguised wife' topos in secular litetature, and sexuality in late romance literature. The moral of this medieval story is that while virtuous women for the sake of devotion and righteousness may disguise themselves as men, they may not hold offices of power traditionally reserved for men. Hotchkiss convincingly demonstrates that female cross-dressing was celebrated in the Middle ii6arthuriana Ages insofar as it sealed a woman's Christian humility and self-effacement, in short, her subordination. Hotchkiss's insightful chapter on the ttansvestite 'monk' Hildegund von Schonau explores what the author identifies as the 'double standard' ofChristian transvestitism. Hildegund was discovered by her fellow monks to be a woman only at her death when her body was prepared for burial. For this, Hildegund was made a saint. Hotchkiss's valid point is that if a living woman were discovered to have disguised her sex and wear monk's clothing, she would have been denounced. In other words, a female ttansvestite monk was much better off dead. Hotchkiss's chapter on the legendary female pope considers the most vital instance among medieval traditions in which female cross-dressing was considered sinful. As Hotchkiss aptly points out, it was not so much that the mythic female pope disguised herself as a man but that she used her disguise to gain political power over men. In contrast, the female monks ofhagiographie literature were less threatening since they led quiet and unobtrusive lives ofobedience within the confines of a monastery. Hotchkiss's chapter on Joan ofArc argues the key insight that the Maid ofOrleans, although she...

Tchaikovsky, His Dream, the Maid of Orleans, and His Creative Impulse

Tchaikovsky, His Dream, the Maid of Orleans, and His Creative Impulse

The Maid of Orleans

The Maid of Orleans

Frank Harris and the Maid of Orleans

Frank Harris and the Maid of Orleans

On the Trial of the Sarajevo Assassins. Is There an Authentic Text of the Trial Records?

At first I was unable to obtain any information at all and then only extremely vague and uncertain indications which left the door wide open for every possible conjecture about where the repository of the records of the main process of the Sarajevo assassins is located. Some maintain that the trial records were sent away soon after the verdict was rendered on October 28, 1914, and that they were later torn apart and hopelessly mixed up—even more so than the records of the Maid of Orleans, whose trial, as is well known, took place over five centuries ago. Others believe that this is no misfortune, since an authentic translation of the records of the main trial from Serbo-Croatian into German was published in 1918 by the Berlin Archiv fur Strafrecht und Strafprozess in a treatise entitled Der Prozess gegen die Attentäter von Sarajevo. Nach amtlichen Stenogrammen des Gerichtsverfahrens aktenmässig dargestellt von Prof. Pharos.1

Mary Stuart. The Maid of Orleans. Two Historical Plays

Mary Stuart. The Maid of Orleans. Two Historical Plays