Joan of Arc (known during her own lifetime as Jeanne "la Pucelle," or Joan "the Maid") was one of the most dynamic and yet enigmatic personalities of the European Middle Ages. Born into a peasant family in the French border province of Lorraine in 1412, she gained control of an army, won brilliant military victories, crowned a king, and was burnt at the stake as a heretic, all before her twentieth birthday. Triply marginalized by gender, age, and socio-economic status, she nonetheless managed to shake the Church- and State- establishments to their very core. But who was Joan of Arc? Nationalist martyr? Pioneer feminist? Champion of the people? Enemy of democracy? Instrument of God's will? Fanatic xenophobe? Victim of post-traumatic stress disorder? Over the centuries since her death, artists - and not just politicians and scholars - have attempted to answer this question, creating myriad literary, pictorial, and cinematic visions of la Pucelle under the influence of an ever-changing lens of contemporary tastes and concerns. Through discussion of readings and various kinds of visual material, this course will survey the history of Joan of Arc in a range of different media. Among those who have "invented" Joan of Arc and whose work will be examined in the course are: Shakespeare, Voltaire, Schiller, Michelet, Twain, Shaw, Rubens, Ingres, Rude, Bastien-Lepage, DeMille, Dreyer, Preminger, Rivette, and Besson. Requirements: class participation, midterm, three short writing assignments, final exam. No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 15.