The reminiscences of Salome’s dance and the Danse Macabre in authors’ models of the late 19th — early 20th centuries literature

Abstract

The subject of the study is the topos of dance. The article identifies the factors of its actualization in the literature of the late 19th — early 20th centuries; considers the origins of its reading through the prism of Eros and Thanatos; analyses works with “dance” imagery, and clarifies its role in the texts poetics. These tasks aim to outline the author’s models that utilize “Dance of the Seven Veils” and “The Danse Macabre”. Comparative, mythological-archetypal, historical-cultural research methods have been applied to study the specifics of dance interpretation in the aesthetic coordinates of modernism. The interest in these aspects of the archetypal topos existence and the need to define the author’s representations as variants of the national determine the relevance of the study.
Results of the Study. The reminiscences of Salome’s dance and the Dance of Death are due to the perception of the era as a “plague age”; aesthetic understanding of dance as a personification of the phenomenon of death; interest in the body as a socio-cultural concept and its sensory cognition; a revival of the art of dance; interest in the theme of the East; popularity of erotic motives and the character “woman-child”; the relevance of archetypal codes for the triad “life — death — art”. Charles Baudelaire’s poetry is analyzed as the origins of the modernist interpretation of dance at the intersection of Thanatos and Eros. His dance imagery is characterized by its ironic understanding through the prism of existential categories and interpretation in the context of eschatological and aesthetic issues.
The development of the Baudelaire tradition is reflected in the examples of the “new drama”: Lesya Ukrainka reminiscences Salome’s dance as an embodiment of bodily freedom (The Forest Song) and dance as a sign of humility and choice of “death” of the spirit (The Orgy). In Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House the tarantella is both an image of a festive atmosphere and a sign of falsified values of the characters. The dance heralds the catastrophe of Nora’s “puppet” house and at the same time opens up prospects for finding one’s self.
The Danse Macabre for Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky (Ivan’s dance with Chuhaister in Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors) and Thomas Mann (dance seen in Aschenbach’s bizarre dream in Death in Venice) is connected with the infernal. It symbolizes the heroes’ awareness of the new “reality” and the transition to another level of worldview; concentrates on thanatological and erotic and defines the complex relationship of mind and body as issues of works. For both characters, the dance is a warning of imminent physical death. But for Aschenbach, it is also the last act of dying as an artist, a symbol of his soul’s death. In contrast, for Ivan, it is a duel-dance to protect his beloved, reunion with whom gains his integrity.