Afterimages of a saint:Felicitas Hoppe's Johanna and the poetics of writing history

Journal article

This article examines Felicitas Hoppe’s 2006 novel Johanna, a historical fiction about Joan of Arc which can simultaneously be read as a poetic reflection on the very process of writing about the past. Johanna raises questions about women’s roles in institutions, the historical record, and myth-making. I argue that Hoppe’s novel, which stands consciously in a tradition of literary and cultural depictions of Joan, uses a postmodern aesthetic fusing a highly poetic narrative mode with an approach informed by the idea of subjunctive history. Rather than writing into existence another Joan, Hoppe creates an afterimage of the saint, writing allusive and tentative histories that might have been. I argue that in its alternative treatment of historical writing, Hoppe’s text challenges the gendered power of institutions, both within Joan’s own time and in the present, including the gendered reception of history and historical fiction.

Authors: Lloyd, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Journal: Journal of Romance Studies
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 341-356
• Publication date: 2018-12-01
• Acceptance date: 2018-01-16
• DOI: 10.3828/jrs.2018.21
• EISSN: 1752-2331
• ISSN: 1473-3536
• Language: English