A Hegelian Reading of Saint Joan, a Historical Drama by G.B. Shaw: the Effects of Dialectical Approach in a Historical Reproduction

Among British playwrights, George Bernard Shaw is a dramatist who envisages the hermeneutics o f history with a m ore challenging perspective w hich approximates him to a modern o utlook. I n this regard, he manages to attune his philosophy of history (best exposed in a 1923 p lay by t he name of S aint Joan) with the idea of F. W. Hegel, t he nineteenth - c entury German th inker, and his unique approach to the speculations on the philosophy o f history. The attempt of the present study is t o read Saint Joan through the looking glass of Hegel’s two eminent works, The Philosophy of Right and Philosophy o f History and if possible, to excruciate t he assimilations between t he t wo thinkers a nd their involvement in the notion of history.