ABSTRACT
Oscar Wilde's Salome on German-speaking stages had virtually been eclipsed in fame and popularity by Richard Strauss's operatic version. It may reasonably be argued that it was the Irish author's one-act tragedy that helped transform the Biblical theme into one of the most suggestive cultural myths of the fin de sicle. Serving an institutional agency invested with the governmental authority of determining hegemonic definitions of culture, the censor functions as a gatekeeper, standing at crucial points of control, monitoring what comes in and what stays outside any given cultural or 'linguistic territory'. The Censor is the official mouthpiece of Philistinism, and Philistinism would doubtless have been outraged had Salome been represented on 'stage'. The broad spectrum of critical responses on the occasion of Salome's Vienna debut, directed by Richard Fellner, offers a striking panorama of diverse aesthetically and ideologically motivated assessments.
