Obraz Salome v české literatuře druhé poloviny 19. století
The image of Salome in Czech literature in the latter half of the 19th century

Summary/Abstract: This study focuses on the ways the biblical story of John the Baptist’s beheading took on a new significance during the latter half of the 19th century. The focus of interest was the figure of Salome, the daughter of Herodias, whose dance in front of the tetrarch Herod brought about John’s death. Within the context of these works of world literature we shall follow the changes in the image of Salome in Czech literature, as our attention focuses on works representing various artistic schools. By examining works by such canonical authors as Jaroslav Vrchlický, Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, Karel Hlaváček and Julius Zeyer, as well as less well‑known writers, we shall attempt to present the various approaches to the biblical story, bearing in mind the realization of individual characters, the selection of the story segment that is stressed in the work, and the characteristic perspective whose use may affect the interpretation of the story and the figure of the dancer herself. By means of Algirdas Julien Greimas’s pair of actants (i.e. subject and object) we can distinguish the role played by Salome in individual narratives. We shall attempt to specify the basic trio of forms – Salome in the role of object, subject and absent within the narrative – in order to be able to depict the primary realizations of the character of Herodias’s daughter that are possible in art. Within the context of these distinctions, Salome emerges not only as a mute intermediary for her mother or a femme fatale, but also in less frequent forms in which the extent of the mother’s influence on her dancing daughter is of substantial importance, as is Salome’s realization in the form of a fille fatale, who does not even need the notorious dance to achieve her fatefulness and her influence on the tetrarch Herod.

• Details
• Contents