The Interrogation Of Joan Of Arc Summary

The written records from Joan of Arc’s trials and subsequent interrogations have long been accepted in containing the words of Joan of Arc. Karen Sullivan, a professor of literature at Bard College and writer of various articles on medieval French literature, challenges the accuracy of these records noting that it was the clerics, who were persecuting Joan, who decided the line of inquiry in the interrogations, decided when the interrogations would take place, and ultimately decided what to include in their transcripts and records of those events as truth. It is the victors who write and shape history. With this in mind, Sullivan chose to examine these accounts as a literary text to see how the interpretation of Joan’s words from these clerics

She analyzes the different approaches of Joan’s questioning to see how they would affect the exchanges between the clerics and Joan. To go over this, the book is organized into sections based on different aspect of clerical education and training as scholars, inquisitors and confessors. With each topic and line of questioning presented in the book we get Sullivan’s analysis and interpretation of the wording used in the interrogation transcripts i.e., with Joan’s background she may say something that seems innocent and truthful to her while the clerics who have a different cultural and educational background view Joan’s statements as hersey. A similar statement, even though it’s about a different subject matter, can be made between the vikings and monks in Lindisfarne. The monks who were raised in a society that viewed religious buildings as sanctuary and free from harm would view the vikings as barbarians for raiding and pillaging their monastery. The vikings, on the other hand, did not have the concept of church’s as sanctuary because they grew up with a different