This book is about the political wisdom embodied in Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain, the self-declared best book by arguably America’s greatest author. More precisely, this study illuminates Twain’s political wisdom by examining his approach to the theological-political problem; it takes up Twain’s handling of the question of whether a providential deity intervenes in human affairs so as to effectuate divine justice on earth and it does this through a commentary on his last complete novel. Through this investigation, Twain prompts his audience to explore the natural, conventional, or divine basis for justice in political life. Such a study is critical for understanding Twain’s corpus, concerned as it is with the tension between material determinism and moral agency. Dobski argues that Twain’s last novel prepares his readers to adopt a “new” understanding of man and his relationship to God, his country, and his fellow man.
Table of Content
Chapter One: Introduction.- Part One.- Chapter Two: The Puzzles of Mark Twain’s Joan of Arc.- Chapter Three: Twain’s Interest in Religion & the Divine Right of Kings.- Chapter Four: From the Question of Divine Right to the Character of Sieur Louis de Conte.- Part Two.- Chapter Five: Joan’s Noble Political Career.- Chapter Six: The Maiden Head of Modernity: Joan’s Revolutionary Project.- Chapter Seven: The Human Roots of Religious Belief.- Part Three.- Chapter Eight: Speech in Personal Recollections: History, Tragedy, and Comedy.- Chapter Nine: Judging Joan.- Chapter Ten: The Queering of Joan’s Being.- Chapter Eleven: Conclusion.
About the author
Bernard Dobski is Professor of Political Science at Assumption University, USA. He is the coeditor of Shakespeare and the Body Politic (2013) and Souls with Longing: Representations of Honor and Love in Shakespeare (2011).
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