Although women were rarely recruited into combat roles before the later decades of the twentieth century, images of armed women were used as tools to mobilise wartime populations, and the lives and stories of female combatants were widely disseminated via the mass media. For European and North American journalists, the main point of reference tended to be Joan of Arc, who was presented as the modern armed woman’s ultimate foremother. This included women engaged in anti-colonial conflicts and uprisings. For instance, Nana Yaa Asantewaa, a ‘Queen Mother’ who following the death of her brother mobilised and led the Asante fighting force in the 1900-1 Asante-British War (War of the Golden Stool), was regularly called 'Africa's Joan of Arc' in the British press. And in 1901, Michael White published one of many books about the Rani of Jhansi, a leading figure in the Indian First War of Independence (Indian Mutiny) of 1857, entitled Lachmi Bai: The Jeanne d'Arc of India.
This paper will explore, firstly, this tendency to use Joan of Arc as a blueprint against which other modern women warriors were viewed and judged. Comparing women warriors to Joan of Arc was a way of making a diverse range of individuals and political, cultural and military contexts legible for the readerships of Western newspapers, and of limiting and controlling the meanings with which the warriors were charged. Secondly, it will explore the ways in which anti-colonial and feminist movements themselves challenged Western interpretations of the Joan of Arc myth, either by constructing alternative versions of Joan of Arc, or by turning to other mythic figures in their representations of warrior women.
All welcome! Tea and coffee will be available from 3:45pm
Alison Fell is a Professor and Dean of the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures the University of Liverpool.