Subverting the Gaze, Seducing with the Bible: A Study of Oscar Wilde's Salomé

• Authors: Dąbrowska, Justyna

Abstracts

EN

The present article engages with the eponymous character of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé and focuses on her subversion of the patriarchal rules, and on her attempts at seducing the prophet Jokanaan. Wilde’s Salomé becomes “an erotic symbol of daring, transgression, and perversity” (Sloan 112). She wants to look at Jokanaan, as well as to be touched by him and openly states her great desire for him, using the imagery taken from the biblical Song of Songs to express her passion. Moreover, the Princess skillfully adopts and reverses the male gaze to manipulate others and go beyond the patriarchal constraints at Herod’s court. She becomes aware that the only way to reach her goals is to look actively and evade being a mere object of the male gaze. The article shows that the imagery employed in the eponymous character’s speeches contributes to her portrayal as a seductress, also accentuating her rebellion, and analyzes how the Princess transgresses the patriarchal constraints through appropriating the male gaze.

Keywords

EN

Oscar Wilde; Bible; Salomé; male gaze

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Analyses/Rereadings/Theories: A Journal Devoted to Literature, Film and Theatre
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 1

Dates

published

2014

Contributors

author

Dąbrowska, Justyna

other

University of Łódź

other

Justyna Dąbrowska is an MA student of English Philology at the University of Łódź. She completed her BA thesis entitled “‘Neither at things, nor at people should one look’: the Gaze Chain in Oscar Wilde’s Salomé” at the Department of Drama and Pre-1800 English Literature at the University of Łódź, and earned a distinction for it. Her main academic interests include modern Irish drama (especially the work of Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats), contemporary Irish drama and the broadly defined concept of visuality. She is also interested in the portrayal of women in drama and in the Bible. She is the president of The Geoffrey Chaucer Student Society at the Department of Drama and Pre-1800 English Literature at the University of Łódź

Identifiers

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/11089/22492