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Abstract:

The article deals with the gender analysis of the cross-cultural phenomenon called the “Dance of the Seven Veils,” which arose due to O. Wilde’s drama Salome. The article solves two research tasks: on the one hand, to summarize and complement the observations made before us concerning the new femininity of the modern era, embodied in the “Dance of the Seven Veils,” and on the other hand, to consider the parodic reception of the new femininity and the figure of Salome, so far overlooked by the researchers. It is important to trace the evolution of the image of Salome and the concept of her dance from admiration and horror to ironic denial and the creation of the antithetic image. We consider the sources of the famous dance, its semantics, psychological, social and cultural interpretations. It is concluded that the “Dance of the Seven Veils” in various productions and interpretations, as well as the image of Salome itself, turned into a quintessence of the new femininity: sensual, vicious, hysterical, frightening, deadly, but doomed and tragic. Through secondary metaphorization this destructive and erotically attractive femininity became the symbol of the Art Nouveau era. However, the tragic image of infernal femininity prevailed for only two decades, and in the early 1910s fatigue from it began to be felt, although it did not completely leave the culture. The image of Salome as a femme fatale became the object of voluntary or involuntary parody, and the dance itself vulgarized. The one-act play Queen Tair by Teffi with the subtitle “Assyrian Adventure” (1912, published in 1913) can be considered as parody of Salome and her hypnotic dance.