About

Deborah McGrady is a specialist of late-medieval French literature and culture. Her most recent book, Joan of Arc: The Life of a French Cultural Icon (May 2025), discusses the long history of the medieval heroine's legacy, from her emergence on the public stage to her influence as recently as the opening ceremony for the Summer 2024 Olympics in Paris. Her previous work has focused on reading, authorship, and patronage in late medieval culture, including her first monograph, Controlling Readers: Guillaume de Machaut and His Late Medieval Audience, and The Writer’s Gift or the Patron’s Pleasure? The Literary Economy in Late Medieval France. She is also the co-editor of Christine de Pizan: A Casebook and A Companion to Guillaume de Machaut. McGrady teaches courses on medieval and premodern French literature and culture, and she is a College Fellow in the Engagement's Program, where she teaches a course on the ethics of studying the past.

Research topics

• Art
• Sociology
• Aesthetics
• Psychology
• Literature
• Gender studies

Selected publications

• 4. Remembering Joan: From Supporting Role to Cultural Icon

  Boydell and Brewer eBooks · 2024-12-31

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Joan of Arc

  2024-05-20

  book1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• 3. From Monstrosity to Martyr: Joan’s Body on Display

  Boydell and Brewer eBooks · 2024-12-31

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• 1. Breaking News: Early Versions of Joan’s Story

  Boydell and Brewer eBooks · 2024-12-31

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Joan of Arc

  2024-01-01

  bookOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Traces contemporary and later reception of Joan of Arc, examining how cultural beliefs and conventions have shaped her story. Joan of Arc stands out as one of the most recognized historical figures of medieval Europe. Learned writings as well as popular imagination, from the Middle Ages to today, have celebrated her as an exceptional character and hailed her legacy. And yet, there is scant recognition of her enduring status as an icon. What is one to make of a young, female medieval peasant-turned-warrior-turned heretic-turned martyr who has repeatedly been drawn back from oblivion, revived, and made relevant time and again? Unravelling the mystery of this question requires revisiting contemporary and historical accounts, listening anew to Joan's "voice" as seen in her letters and trial documents, and inquiring into the lively debate her afterlife has generated in the arts, from paintings and sculptures to romance, theatre and cinema. To unearth this new story of Joan of Arc, this study focuses on her French legacy, where her continued cultural and aesthetic importance are most vibrant, and it brings this phenomenon into dialogue with modern discussions about gender and class, anachronism and memory, and metafiction, creative time, and the gaze.

  PublisherDOI

• Introduction: Joan of Arc’s World

  Boydell and Brewer eBooks · 2024-12-31

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Appendix: Francisci Barbari Andreae Gallica pulcherrima

  Boydell and Brewer eBooks · 2024-12-31

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Le retour de Jeanne d'Arc: Les aventures de la pucelle dans les BDs

  HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  International audience

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• :<i>Medieval Women and War: Female Roles in the Old French Tradition</i>

  Speculum · 2022-12-23

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Silencing the Sirens and Rethinking Masculinity in Machaut’s <i>Voir dit</i>

  Epitome musical · 2022

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Art
  • Literature
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Guillaume De

  Hernia Center

  17 shared

• Rosalind Brown

  ECW Press (Canada)

  16 shared

• Noah D. Guynn

  16 shared

• Matthew Fisher

  Hernia Center

  16 shared

• Simon Gaunt

  16 shared

• Andrew Cowell

  16 shared

• John D. Lyons

  University of Virginia

  4 shared

• Edward Hughes

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Le STUDIUM Visiting Research Fellowship, Institute for Advan…
• Gould Foundation Fellowship, National Humanities Center (201…
• Mellon Fellowship, Medieval Institute, University of Notre D…
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Medieval Institute, Western Michiga…
• Executive Editor, Digital Philology: A Journal of Medieval C…