Oscar Wilde's "Jewish Problem": Salome, the Ancient Hebrew and the Modern Jewess

Oscar Wilde's Salome is a lush, lurid, spectacular reimagining of the New Testament tale of the death of John the Baptist. To this scant base, Wilde added numerous elements suggesting complex, troubled notions of "the Jew." From the near complete absence of scholarship on Wilde vis-a-vis the Jew, it might well be assumed that Jews appear in Wilde simply as a factual background for ancient through modern life. Instead, Wilde's conflicted uses of the figure of the Jew are key to understanding central issues not only in Salome but in Wilde's work and thought at large.