ABSTRACT

The 1995 electoral gains of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his National Front party invite a retrospective glance at the history of the Right in France. Philosophically more complex than its counterparts in other nations, the French Right has cultivated ideals that in their most laudable form crystallized in the icon of Joan of Arc, simple shepherdess and patriot, by the late nineteenth century. Joan' uniquely powerful appropriation by the French Right finds its s origins in the heroine' own time; this affinity is then traced from the s French Revolution, through Michelet' history, and the founding of the s Action Franaise to the present. Vichy' image of Joan is illumined by s Nazi Germany' idealized woman. Many persons and movements selecting Joan as their symbol through the ages have done so with the best intentions. Terms and phrases denoting rescue are frequent in each faction's lexicon.