AbstractsWomens Studies

Salome: Reviving the Dark Lady

by Alanna Marie Gibson




Institution: University of Dayton
Department: English
Degree: MA
Year: 2014
Keywords: African American Studies; American Literature; Bible; British and Irish Literature; Comparative Literature; Cultural Anthropology; Dance; European Studies; Experiments; Folklore; Gender; Language Arts; Literature; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Modern History; Religion; Scandinavian Studies; Theater; Womens Studies; Beauty; Early Modern Period; religion; Dark Lady; Nella Larsen; Choreopoem; Salome; Elizabeth Cary; Women of Color; feminism; sexism; sexuality; revival; art; literature; poetry; racism; nontraditional beauty
Record ID: 2027112
Full text PDF: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1398693802


Abstract

Salome: Reviving the Dark Lady is a rationale for an impending interdisciplinary reimagining of the literary Dark Lady for the early twenty-first century. The work comprises of poetry, dance, and film. This thesis recounts the history of beauty in the Early Modern Period and discusses the historical context of the Dark Lady to provide a frame for the journey of marginalized archetype into the twenty-first century.The choreopoem itself is built upon Salome, the character from Elizabeth Cary's1613 closet drama "The Tragedy of Mariam Fair Queen of Jewry." The choreopoem contains transliterated soliloquies of the princess interspersed through original poems and prose inspired by works of spoken-word artist Andrea Gibson, twentieth-century Afro-Scandinavian author Nella Larsen, and various literary and cultural critics.