Whereas Arthur Symons’ earlier poetry offers a more gendered approach to moon symbolism, his ‘Studies in Strange Sins’ – inspired by Beardsley’s illustrations of Wilde’s Salome – in fact contains androgynous figures who are physically and metaphorically illuminated by the moon. The overlap between Rachilde’s and Wilde’s lunar imagery suggests their reciprocal influence. Wilde’s Salome likewise explores androgyny through the lunar imagery which connects Salome with Iokanaan – the object of her desire. Read the full text, with drawings, here, and see a gallery of Beardsley’s original uncensored illustrations at the British Library.

Rachilde further interrogates issues of gender identity in Monsieur Vénus, challenging the cult of female invalidism by applying lunar descriptions to her eponymous, seemingly androgynous, male protagonist. Published in full in 1894, in an English translation of Wilde’s original French text, the Beardsley-illustrated Salome contained 16 plates, some of them tamed or censored by the publishers. Share a GIF and browse these related GIF searches. Rachilde’s French Decadent plays, Madame la Mort (1891) and Volupté (1896), attribute lunar imagery to both male and female lunacy. Looking for oscar wildes salom stickers The best GIFs for oscar wildes salom.

This dissertation explores the function of the moon as a polysemous Decadent symbol, which changes from a traditional symbol of female virginity and chastity to a symbol of androgyny and gender fluidity. Although androgyny in Decadence has been explored through its stock characters – such as the dandy, the hermaphrodite and the vampire – few critics have studied androgyny through moon symbolism.

Oscar wildes salome