The images of Oscar Wilde's Salome illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley are interesting and quite different from many other illustrations in books, poems, and plays we've seen thus far. These images seem to almost contrast with the texts but definitely make a commentary. I felt that, in the images, there was a lot of sexism and homophobia seemingly shown as a way for Beardsley to comment on Wilde's sexuality. There was a lot of play on the male gaze within the illustrations.
This week we looked at Oscar Wild's 1893 play Salomé which was illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley in the English edition. This text was definitely the most challenging text to analyze especially when it came to its illustrations as Beardsley strangely and most definitely deliberately avoided merely reflecting Wild's text.
The analyzing of Salome by Oscar Wilde was extremely interesting to be a part of. Throughout the course of the meeting today we came to a pretty general conclusion that the images by Aubrey Beardsley and the text by Oscar Wilde we're working in two different directions but simultaneously creating a very successful text. With this being said it was apparent that Aubrey Beardsley definitely took his own approach in illustrating for Oscar Wilde's playwright. Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations really take a play on sexuality and gender throughout the entire T of the book.
Sefton is referred to as Heston in the book North and South . It is a village located in the Metropolitan Bourough of Merseyside, England. Located to the south west of Maghull and to the north east of Great Crosby, it is on the flood plain of the River Alt. According to Britannica, it extends along the Irish Sea coast from the Ribble estuary (a water passage where the tide meets a river current) in the north to the Mersey estuary in the south.
I was interested to learn about the scholarship on Salome that suggests that the woman's face in the moon is possibly Beardsley's depiction of Wilde. References of this kind seem to add another dimension of meaning-making beyond how illustrations interact with the texts to which they are set. Since the author-illustrator relationship is often collaboarative, it is natural that illustrations shuld sometimes contain signs of communication between the author and illustrator, over and above any relation to the text itself.
This week, when analyzing Oscar Wilde's Salome, illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley, I was very drawn into the representation of woman and the incorporation of the moon. When looking at the image that Patricia had presented, "The Woman in the Moon", it provided me with some initial insight on the meaning behind the two figures. While it is clear to see that one of the figures is a man because is he presented nude, the other figure is fully clothed, which can cause room for speculation that perhaps this is a woman.
This week's seminar focused on Salome: A Tragedy in One Act, a play written by Oscar Wilde. The play was originally published in French in 1892, however, it was censored from being performed as it depicted Biblical figures. The English translation was published in 1894 with ten censored accompanying illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley. It was later republished in 1907 with all sixteen uncensored illustrations.
This weeks class consisted of discussions surrounding Oscar Wilde's Salome and how Aubrey Beardsley's illustrations accompany and further add on to the concepts presented within the text. Many of the discussions surrounded female sexuality during the fin de siecle and how Beardsley decided to portray Salome despite this.
Out of all the readings I have done for this course, I found Oscar Wilde’s Salome to be the most difficult. I felt that the text, as well as the images were complicated and rooted in symbolism. I found the presentations today to be very helpful in understanding this symbolism. I saw a lot of gender representation throughout the illustrations, weather that be through non-conforming gender or a character very specifically being a man or a woman.
With this weeks discussion of Oscar Wilde's Salome, I noticed the ways that the illustrations accompanying the text play on the idea of the male gaze, as was discussed by many of the presentations. Especially when analyzing how Salome's character is being depicted in the illustrations, it is easy to idenfity the ways in which Beardsley's images draw on the male gaze by the visual cues that they feature.
