Met with Rathey today to clarify some of our concerns about research method and how we should form a "thesis". His response was that this is a historical study with nothing to prove. So the goal is to research the topic thoroughly, present that information (not randomly but concisely) along with some of our own conclusions.
Some guiding questions:
What are we looking at? the story of John the Baptist and Salome
Why are Strauss and Wilde interested in this topic?
How does 20th c thinking affect the story?
How does this art affect the presentation of biblical subjects in the 20th c?
He also mentioned Adella Collins as biblical scholar source.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
personal reflection
Chapter 2 of "Three Versions of the Salome Legend" begins with a discussion of interpretations of literature that take into account authors' lives. The author of this thesis feels that an understanding of Wilde's personal life is useful to the interpretation of his art. Particularly this relates to the ways in which Wilde attracted attention but veiled his inner life from the public eye. This is reflected in Wilde's art: "It is easy to see how this system of camouflage relates to one of the central motifs in Wilde's work--the theme of mask. A mask will attract attention while diverting it from what lies hidden behind. The imagery that highlights this topic varies but always within the framework of self-reflection. The symbol may be a narcissus, a pool, a mirror, a portrait, the moon, or the eyes of another. It does not imply a mere examination of the external but rather indicates an attempt to find the relation between the external appearance and the internal self, between mask and reality. The question is one of self-reflection and self knowledge" (55-56).
Friday, August 7, 2009
image proliferation (AWESOME!!)
I found this wonderful website (http://www.wga.hu/index1.html) that has pretty much every artwork in creation. Here are the images of Salome I was able to cull. Follow the linking trail.
I think it might be fruitful to analyze how Beardsley's illustrations depart from the visual Salome tradition and see whether this reflects Wilde's departure from the literary Salome tradition.
Bernardino Luini (Italian Renaissance painter, Lombard school; b. 1480, Luino, d. 1532, Milano) apparently liked Salome with JB beheaded because he treated the subject three different times. But all three portrayals are quite similar. A disembodied hand (in the first and third case) holds JB casually by the hair as it is lowered into the empty silver charger. Salome gently holds the charger, almost caressing it, with her head turned demurely away. She is dispassionate in the first and third images. In the second there is a hint of a smile on her face, suggesting the invisible emotional history of the story. In all three cases, Salome appears to be a typical Renaissance woman, although I am not familiar with female iconography of the time period. There is a little cleavage, but that does not seem too scandalous. The first Salome's costume interests me the most. She looks the most royal or patrician. She has a pearl circlet around her head, and a pearl and gold necklace dangling a pendant of a naked cherubic looking figure. I wonder what this is and what it means. In all three images, JB has medium-length curly hair, peacefully closed eyes, and two-pronged beard. If I were beheaded, I think it's likely that I would have a look of horror frozen on my face. Is he peaceful because he has nothing to be ashamed or fearful of as the Lord's prophet? Is this typical of the tradition?
Oh, wow. If you type "Salome" into the search engine, you come up with 60 hits. I won't attempt to analyze them all, but maybe later I'll post some more thoughts.
I think it might be fruitful to analyze how Beardsley's illustrations depart from the visual Salome tradition and see whether this reflects Wilde's departure from the literary Salome tradition.
Bernardino Luini (Italian Renaissance painter, Lombard school; b. 1480, Luino, d. 1532, Milano) apparently liked Salome with JB beheaded because he treated the subject three different times. But all three portrayals are quite similar. A disembodied hand (in the first and third case) holds JB casually by the hair as it is lowered into the empty silver charger. Salome gently holds the charger, almost caressing it, with her head turned demurely away. She is dispassionate in the first and third images. In the second there is a hint of a smile on her face, suggesting the invisible emotional history of the story. In all three cases, Salome appears to be a typical Renaissance woman, although I am not familiar with female iconography of the time period. There is a little cleavage, but that does not seem too scandalous. The first Salome's costume interests me the most. She looks the most royal or patrician. She has a pearl circlet around her head, and a pearl and gold necklace dangling a pendant of a naked cherubic looking figure. I wonder what this is and what it means. In all three images, JB has medium-length curly hair, peacefully closed eyes, and two-pronged beard. If I were beheaded, I think it's likely that I would have a look of horror frozen on my face. Is he peaceful because he has nothing to be ashamed or fearful of as the Lord's prophet? Is this typical of the tradition?
Oh, wow. If you type "Salome" into the search engine, you come up with 60 hits. I won't attempt to analyze them all, but maybe later I'll post some more thoughts.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Mother and child reunion
The relationship between Herodias, Salome and Herod sort of woke me out of bed this morning.
Herodias, who is losing her power over Herod to Salome, manipulates her daughter with every tool available. Herod blatantly flirts with Salome, offering half of his kingdom to her (which is technically still her mother's)- he is stripping Herodias of her power in public.
Salome's violent death at the end...is that what Herodias really wanted all along? Was John the Baptist just a bonus?
This thought made me bound out of bed this morning. Completely unfounded, just stream of consciousness. Wanted to bounce it off you.
Herodias, who is losing her power over Herod to Salome, manipulates her daughter with every tool available. Herod blatantly flirts with Salome, offering half of his kingdom to her (which is technically still her mother's)- he is stripping Herodias of her power in public.
Salome's violent death at the end...is that what Herodias really wanted all along? Was John the Baptist just a bonus?
This thought made me bound out of bed this morning. Completely unfounded, just stream of consciousness. Wanted to bounce it off you.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Some thoughts on Wilde
Wilde's rhetoric is highly stylized with the goal of creating the flow of a long poem. The guard, Herod, and Salome all have alarms which signal their impending doom but they refuse to listen. Salome's obsession with John turns to revulsion when he rejects her sexual advances- clearly a response she isn't used to. The kiss transforms from the erotic into the horrific, a running theme throughout.
Isn't it interesting that John is imprisoned in cistern? Something designed for water- the tool and symbol of baptism.
The book The Legend of Salome by Zacona points out that the difference between the Mark and Matthew versions of the story is one of psychological depth- a topic I hope to explore this week. This book also mentioned that Wilde gained some of his inspiration from the work of Gustave Moreau.
Because the Strauss libretto attempts to be as close to the Wilde play is possible I'm spending a lot of time with the original text before moving to the opera. My goal is to really understand the imagery Wilde found important so the contrast between the two will really jump out at me. My focus for this week is just comparing gospel accounts, and familiarizing myself still with Wilde's original work (and the sources he used for inspiration).
Any thoughts on De profundis?
Isn't it interesting that John is imprisoned in cistern? Something designed for water- the tool and symbol of baptism.
The book The Legend of Salome by Zacona points out that the difference between the Mark and Matthew versions of the story is one of psychological depth- a topic I hope to explore this week. This book also mentioned that Wilde gained some of his inspiration from the work of Gustave Moreau.
Because the Strauss libretto attempts to be as close to the Wilde play is possible I'm spending a lot of time with the original text before moving to the opera. My goal is to really understand the imagery Wilde found important so the contrast between the two will really jump out at me. My focus for this week is just comparing gospel accounts, and familiarizing myself still with Wilde's original work (and the sources he used for inspiration).
Any thoughts on De profundis?
Sunday, July 26, 2009
More thoughts
Something that bears considering: the ways in which Wilde's play differs from the biblical narrative. It seems so obvious, yet I had not considered it until today when I began reading Ross Kraemer's "Implicating Herodias and Her Daughter in the Death of John the Baptizer."
Why this is important: It has to do with the constructedness of the figure of Salome. Not only is she portrayed through text by men alone (Matthew, Mark, Flavius Josephus, and Wilde) but she might actually be their creation entirely. According to the Kraemer article, much of the details of this story are nebulous. He's not quite sure who is married to whom and when (with a good deal of scholarly precedent for this confusion). I have not finished reading the article yet, and when I do I will comment more.
I think Wilde's departures from the conflicted biblical narratives, and Josephus's narrative, are possibly loaded with meaning. I would like to know more about how and why Wilde chose to represent a little-known and seldom-named biblical woman the ways he did. Because of the hazy nature of the biblical narrative, Wilde has complete license to portray Salome however he chooses. But no doubt he has accrued various cultural and artistic versions of the story of Salome. The history of interpretation and transmission of this story is important in being able to discern Wilde's careful artistic choices in his particular version of this character. This is a question we have had with regard to Salome's portrayal as a sex symbol. Was Wilde just following popular cultural portrayals of Salome with regard to her sexiness? Probably yes and no. I don't know of any other controversies around the artistic creation of Salome. But this Salome, combined with Wilde's indecent public behavior, was enough to land him in prison, correct? Why such an explosion over a woman who might not have even existed?
But, here are a few general notes about the actors and their actions that need to be compared more closely with the biblical narrative (and other popular ones as well):
Salome's obsession with John the Baptist (why?)-->her desire to have him beheaded--> culminates with the infamous kiss of his beheaded pate.
Herodias' dislike of John because he speaks ill of her marriage. Her resentment of her daughter until Salome requests to have him beheaded.
Herod's fear of John, not because John necessarily represents the Jewish population which he does not want to upset (although the Jewish contingent is represented and occassionally speaks; there is a lot of interesting cultural friction in the play); but he actually thinks he might be a holy person. In the Kraemer article, he mentions that Jesus was thought to be John the Baptist come back to life (I believe this has biblical moorings, although I am not sure where). John must have been a fearsome prophet indeed. But this means that Wilde might have been tuned into messianism as well. John certainly seems to speek messianically.
John. That's about all I can say. Who is he criticizing with his cryptic words? Is he right or does he just have everyone running scared? Why does he spurn Salome? Love (or is it lust?) is not bad. I don't know what to make of this character, but perhaps as I continue with my close reading and writing about the poem that will become more clear.
A note on aesthetics, which is a favorite subject of mine: Wilde's play seems entirely motivated by aesthetics, by a concern for beauty, from the very beginning. He also shows a concern for metaphorical language. Everything is compared to something or someone else. Continuing on the theme of the moon I discussed in summary thoughts, part 1, this is from a book on poetics. Discussing Louise Gluck and Sylvia Plath, DeSales Harrison says, "When Gluck mentions the nouns 'moon and pond,' she is of course naming two terms central to the work of Sylvia Plath. For Plath, the mutable, cold, illuminated, and obscure surface of her moon and the shifting, reflective surface of her pools were the surfaces to which she could pose her questions about fate, determination, intention, image, and the terms of representation. Gluck, then, positions herself at the edge not only of her own prior accomplishments but of Plath's as well, and in doing so, identifies her own desire specifically to pick up where Plath left off. Perhaps 'moon' and 'pond' are now exhausted terms, but they illuminate a path of inquiry into the nature of lyric subjectivity that Gluck undertakes to extend, an inquiry that Plath began but could not complete" (The End of the Mind, 174-75).
This could possibly reveal part of what Wilde is doing, whether intentionally or not. Even though Salome is a drama, it reads more like an extended poetic monologue. Although the voices shift and express different opinions (which often are just as changeable as humans themselves), Wilde's poetic style speaks throughout. The imagery is impressive for the way in which he endows symbols with meaning, most particularly the moon. Whereas female poets seem to pose questions to the world around them (I wrote a paper on this relating to Emily Dickinson and Mary Oliver; the quote about Plath seems to confirm it), Wilde seems to display the impulse to define the world or to show what is going on in it. This seems very masculine somehow, as though Wilde is (ironically) impregnating his story with his essence. We can investigate this little theory more.
Why this is important: It has to do with the constructedness of the figure of Salome. Not only is she portrayed through text by men alone (Matthew, Mark, Flavius Josephus, and Wilde) but she might actually be their creation entirely. According to the Kraemer article, much of the details of this story are nebulous. He's not quite sure who is married to whom and when (with a good deal of scholarly precedent for this confusion). I have not finished reading the article yet, and when I do I will comment more.
I think Wilde's departures from the conflicted biblical narratives, and Josephus's narrative, are possibly loaded with meaning. I would like to know more about how and why Wilde chose to represent a little-known and seldom-named biblical woman the ways he did. Because of the hazy nature of the biblical narrative, Wilde has complete license to portray Salome however he chooses. But no doubt he has accrued various cultural and artistic versions of the story of Salome. The history of interpretation and transmission of this story is important in being able to discern Wilde's careful artistic choices in his particular version of this character. This is a question we have had with regard to Salome's portrayal as a sex symbol. Was Wilde just following popular cultural portrayals of Salome with regard to her sexiness? Probably yes and no. I don't know of any other controversies around the artistic creation of Salome. But this Salome, combined with Wilde's indecent public behavior, was enough to land him in prison, correct? Why such an explosion over a woman who might not have even existed?
But, here are a few general notes about the actors and their actions that need to be compared more closely with the biblical narrative (and other popular ones as well):
Salome's obsession with John the Baptist (why?)-->her desire to have him beheaded--> culminates with the infamous kiss of his beheaded pate.
Herodias' dislike of John because he speaks ill of her marriage. Her resentment of her daughter until Salome requests to have him beheaded.
Herod's fear of John, not because John necessarily represents the Jewish population which he does not want to upset (although the Jewish contingent is represented and occassionally speaks; there is a lot of interesting cultural friction in the play); but he actually thinks he might be a holy person. In the Kraemer article, he mentions that Jesus was thought to be John the Baptist come back to life (I believe this has biblical moorings, although I am not sure where). John must have been a fearsome prophet indeed. But this means that Wilde might have been tuned into messianism as well. John certainly seems to speek messianically.
John. That's about all I can say. Who is he criticizing with his cryptic words? Is he right or does he just have everyone running scared? Why does he spurn Salome? Love (or is it lust?) is not bad. I don't know what to make of this character, but perhaps as I continue with my close reading and writing about the poem that will become more clear.
A note on aesthetics, which is a favorite subject of mine: Wilde's play seems entirely motivated by aesthetics, by a concern for beauty, from the very beginning. He also shows a concern for metaphorical language. Everything is compared to something or someone else. Continuing on the theme of the moon I discussed in summary thoughts, part 1, this is from a book on poetics. Discussing Louise Gluck and Sylvia Plath, DeSales Harrison says, "When Gluck mentions the nouns 'moon and pond,' she is of course naming two terms central to the work of Sylvia Plath. For Plath, the mutable, cold, illuminated, and obscure surface of her moon and the shifting, reflective surface of her pools were the surfaces to which she could pose her questions about fate, determination, intention, image, and the terms of representation. Gluck, then, positions herself at the edge not only of her own prior accomplishments but of Plath's as well, and in doing so, identifies her own desire specifically to pick up where Plath left off. Perhaps 'moon' and 'pond' are now exhausted terms, but they illuminate a path of inquiry into the nature of lyric subjectivity that Gluck undertakes to extend, an inquiry that Plath began but could not complete" (The End of the Mind, 174-75).
This could possibly reveal part of what Wilde is doing, whether intentionally or not. Even though Salome is a drama, it reads more like an extended poetic monologue. Although the voices shift and express different opinions (which often are just as changeable as humans themselves), Wilde's poetic style speaks throughout. The imagery is impressive for the way in which he endows symbols with meaning, most particularly the moon. Whereas female poets seem to pose questions to the world around them (I wrote a paper on this relating to Emily Dickinson and Mary Oliver; the quote about Plath seems to confirm it), Wilde seems to display the impulse to define the world or to show what is going on in it. This seems very masculine somehow, as though Wilde is (ironically) impregnating his story with his essence. We can investigate this little theory more.
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