THE IMAGE OF SALOME IN UKRAINIAN LITERATURE: THE DEMON GIRL`S DANCE AND THE MOTIVE OF DECAPITATION

Abstract

The article analyzes the archetypal image of Salome and the motif of decapitation what was represented in literary texts and in art.The visual and verbal interpretation of this plot is quite numerous, it transformed from a nameless dancer, who was a Herodia’s daughter, to the image of a fatal seductress, and then the plot was limited to the figure of Salome. Mimetic violence (according to R. Girard) in the early stages of constructing of the archetypal image of Salome was replaced by the image of a cold-blooded beauty of the fin de siècle era, with elements of demonization and eroticization of the image. This thesis is most vividly reflected in the visual representation of the figure of Salome, that changes from a symbolic image of a dancing girl to an ecstatic image of a woman with deviant signs. In Ukrainian literature and art the image of Salome does`t represented numerically, but rather in interesting reactions to other cultures texts. The most significant authorial interpretation of the archetypal image of Salome was Oscar Wilde's play, which gained resonance in the Ukrainian cultural space. The theatrical production of «Salome» by A. Wilde in 1919 in Kyiv caused a number of poetic reactions, in particular from P. Filipovych, M. Zerov, and later E. Malanyuk responded to these texts with his interpretation of Salome. In general, in Ukrainian fiction, the archetypal image of Salome appears in a negative interpretation, where her transcendent and demonized figure is the personification of the concept of evil. Therefore, Salome is «sweet and irresistible evil», according to J. Malanyuk.