Serpent of the Nile: Women and Dance in the Arab World

Focusing on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Wendy Buonaventura shows how Arabic dance came to be influenced by Western ideas about art and entertainment. But the influence was two-way. In the heyday of "Orientalism, " Arabic dance exerted a powerful influence on the Western imagination--on such writers as Flaubert, such artists as David Roberts and Jean-Leon Gerome, and such imitators as Colette and Mata Hari. Their fascination was often based on common fantasies about the women of the Middle East. Yet, as the book's magnificent illustrations show, this obsession also produced wonderfully evocative images. At the turn of the century, the genre also had an impact on fashion, theater and popular entertainment.