Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia As the Fairy Tale of Shock Economy

Johanna d’Arc of Mongolia as the Fairy Tale of ShockEconomyIn this essay, I examine the film Johanna d’Arc ofMongolia (1989), made by German director Ulrike Ottinger in the year of thefall of the Berlin Wall. I argue that it can be read as an anti-authoritarianarticulation of a desire for radical public spheres better suited to serveminority interests, particularly at times of drastic transformations of socialand political conditions.  The film’s narrativeambiguity should be read in the rhetorical situation of radical fairy tales inWest Germany and their attempt to develop counterpublic spheres, based on thecreation of new communal forms of praxis from “below.” Ottinger’s film, whileshot mostly in Inner Mongolia during the crucial year for the reunification ofGermany, is far from being escapist. The shock of the displaced lower classheroine, so different from the “happy ending” imperative of traditional fairytales, unveils the fiction of a neoliberal economy that considers people andland as mere commodities. Like Karl Polanyi, Ottinger wants to empower peopleto question that major displacements and flexibility had necessarily to beimposed on them in the name of a self-regulating market and to address theseissues in more resilient ways from below.