Memories of the Present in Bensaïd’s Jeanne de guerre lasse

In 1991, the French philosopher Daniel Bensaïd wrote a book about Joan of Arc as a part of his trilogy about history and memory: Jeanne de guerre lasse. This book, conceived as an imaginary dialogue between the author and the Maid, had a dual purpose: first, to contest Joan’s memory among the French far right, which was using her as an emblem; second, to reclaim the historic memory of the defeated. Bensaïd does not seek to define the authentic Joan of Arc against other possible interpretations, but rather to use her as a mirror of present times. In Bensaïd’s vindication of Joan, three aspects stand out: the overwhelming presence of death throughout the work, Joan’s figure as an emblem of resistance, and her dimension of a proto-feminist rebel.