During the course of this project, Death robbed me of two of the most necessary people in my academic life: my comparative literature advisor John R. Locke (August 2000), and Ph.D. committee member, Janice Hocker Rushing (February 2004). Such was the impact of their teaching and the force of their personalities that I feel they will be with me as Spirit Guides for the rest of my days.
My dissertation committee deserves special thanks: William Quinn who took over as director at a very difficult time and kept me on track with unflagging kindness and humor; Lynda Coon, whose course in medieval history gave me a whole new view as to what is going on in “primary” historical sources, and Frank Scheide, film historian whose course in narrative film informs this work and who graciously stepped in for Dr. Rushing at the last minute to help me finish.
Other teachers, colleagues, and staff in the English Department and Comparative Literature program have helped me bring this work to completion by freely sharing their extensive learning, by modeling high standards of scholarship, by offering words of encouragement, and by performing a variety of everyday acts of practical assistance.
At the risk of slighting others who helped me greatly, I want to single out for mention Brian Wilkie, Jon Hassel, Raymond Eichmann, and Dave Fredrick, whose courses not only helped me meet program requirements, but also enriched my life. Thanks are also due to Mark Cory, Patrick Slattery, Leo vanScyoc, Edward Armstrong, Judy Frick, Roy Swaty, Chad Andrews, Susie Streiter, Krista Casada, Lynda Brothers, Béatrice Dubuis, Zsuzsanna Cselenyi, and Kirsten Day, who helped me in ways too varied and numerous to enumerate here.
Thanks are owed to the staff of Mullins Library at the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) for their patient and professional help at every stage of this project, especially reference librarian Steve Chism. I deeply appreciate the librarian unknown to me who had the foresight at some time in the past to acquire our very own copy of Quicherat’s Procès, that essential source for Joan scholars which, according to Régine Pernoud, is “now unobtainable excepting in the major libraries” (Witnesses, 227).
My thanks extend outside this University support group to include my family: my daughter Cory, my son Adam, and Dorothea–the sister-cousin whose steady telephonic infusions of courage kept me going through the roughest spots. Death put a stop to her phone calls in February of this year and I miss her more than I can say. Finally, thanks to my son-in-law Jeremy Humphreys to whom I owe the cover art.
Margaret (Peggy) Maddox
Fayetteville, Arkansas
September, 2008
