The St. Joan of Arc Parade, Gender, and Pride of Place

This chapter explores the history of the Joan of Arc parade, a women’s enterprise that celebrates the birthday of the famous saint, which happens to fall upon January 6th, Twelfth Night, the traditional commencement of the Carnival season. The parade runs through the French Quarter, concluding at the gilded Joan of Arc statue on Decatur Street (Joanie on a pony). The chapter looks at the feminist aspect of the group, which celebrates this female icon, a woman who spoke truth to power and actively fought against it. The parade also is significant for drawing upon European history in a way that underscores the French heritage of the city.

Diva Seductions

The introduction describes how we define and think about the diva in this volume. We discuss the way divas systematically draw our attention to the performative nature of identity, to gender, and to battles over control of female bodies and female sexuality. We want our case studies to move beyond archival portraits to consider historically and culturally informed diva imagery and diva lore. From ancient goddesses and queens to modern singers and writers, we note that each chapter critically reconsiders the female icon, tracing how she has been offered up for emulation, debate, or censure. We ask how the diva disrupts or bolsters ideas about nationhood, morality, and aesthetics. She is ripe for expansion, fantasy, eroticization, and playful reinvention, yet her unavoidability also makes her a special problem for patriarchal culture.

Diva Nation

Diva Nation explores the constructed nature of female iconicity. From ancient goddesses and queens to modern singers and writers, each chapter critically reconsiders the female icon, tracing how she has been offered up for emulation, debate, or censure. Diva Nation stems from our curiosity over the insistent presence of female figures who refuse to sit quietly on the sidelines of history but have not been admitted into mainstream scholarship or routine knowledge. Our case studies move beyond archival portraits to consider historically and culturally informed diva imagery and diva lore. We ask how the diva disrupts or bolsters ideas about nationhood, morality, and aesthetics. She is ripe for expansion, fantasy, eroticization, and playful reinvention, yet her unavoidability also makes her a special problem for patriarchal culture. Charting the waxing and waning of the diva story helps illuminate national narratives and assists us in understanding the ways the nation is imbricated with notions of gender, nostalgia, and identity politics.