The Plays of W.B. Yeats
Subtitle: Yeats and the Dancer
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: March 15, 1999
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 386
ISBN-13: 9780312210694
Subjects: English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Drama / British & Irish; Theater - History & Criticism; Performing Arts; Plays / Drama; Textbooks; Performing Arts/Dance
First sentence: Before embarking on the principal concern of this chapter, an examination of versions of the legend of Salome which emerged after Heinrich Heine's publication of Atta Troll in 1841, reached a climax in the 1890s and continued, in a transformed manner, in the works of W.B. Yeats, echoing even in the last plays of 1935 and 1939, I shall first discuss the figure of the dancer as a concept of great significance to the movement of Symbolisme-Decadence and why she so captivated the fin-de-siecle consciousness of writers, painters and musicians.