'The Fiend That Smites with a Look': the Monstrous/Menstruous Woman and the Danger of the Gaze in Oscar Wilde's Salome

This article traces the reception of Oscar Wilde's play Salomé in Israeli theatre by focusing on the engagement of two artists – writer and translator Pinchas Sadeh and theatre director Ofira Henig – with the play at two different periods. In Salomé, Wilde utilizes his perception of Judaism, as well as the Song of Songs, for the creation of a theatrical space in which spectatorship and ownership are subverted and displaced. At the same time, ironically, the biblical and ‘Jewish’ presence in the play was fundamental for claims of ownership made by some in Hebrew and Israeli culture, asserting that the play somehow belonged to Hebrew culture and the Land of Israel. Despite these claims, the actual reception of Salomé in Israeli theatre proved that the play's ‘belonging’ was far more tenuous. The article examines how the tensions between the seen and the unseen, between owning and disowning and between placement and displacement play out – in almost opposite directions – in Sadeh's ideological reasoning for translating Salomé and in Henig's production of it.

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

Dąbrowska

2014

ART

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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.

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'The Fiend That Smites with a Look': the Monstrous/Menstruous Woman and the Danger of the Gaze in Oscar Wilde's Salome

Cited by 4 publications

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A short history ofSalome

A short history ofSalome

‘This Is a Historical Israeli Play’: Spectatorship, Ownership and the Israeli Localizations ofSalomé

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

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