Arabian nights
Five [-and-a-half] things:
Author
Traditional folklore; orally transmitted and eventually collected
Title
Arabian nights, 1001 nights, The thousand nights and a night
Date
9th-10th century ad for collection (manuscript); earliest extant ms dates to 14th
century (p. xii in your text)
Location
Middle East and North Africa, particularly Arabia, Persia, India, Egypt,
Mesopotamia
Language
Arabic
[textual tradition/edition]
pp. xi-xv in your text; this translation: p. xxv-xxix in your text. Understand we are
reading a translation of one manuscript of the text, which does not include what
scholars think are additions to the text (including some of the more popular stories you
may know, such as Sinbad, Ali-Baba, and Aladdin)!
Major literary concerns:
Frame story
Mise en abyme
Intertextuality / intratextuality
Literary and colloquial language
The self-referential power of the word
Aesthetics
Culture
The text:
Setting: 3rd c - 7th c ad
p. 3: "... to bid his wife goodbye." ... note this and other formulae
p. 4: what accounts for the misogyny? Consider the levels at which the feminine works
in this text.
p. 5: the role of the trickster; the role of Fortune
p. 7: note the folklore topos: the revelation
p. 7-8: what different races are depicted: here and throughout the work?
p. 9-10: the intratextuality of the cuckold
p. 11: Shahrazad - how does "text" reveal character?
p. 13: note the narrative turn, here and elsewhere
p. 14-15: is any of this humorous? Why and why not?
p. 16: how the trick comes off
p. 17: MAJOR STORY A: the merchant and the demon
p. 19: again the farewell trope
p. 21: the narrative connection: note its similarity and difference from those to come
p. 29: the end, and a new beginning
p. 30: MAJOR STORY B: the fisherman and the demon
p. 30-31: Fortune
p. 32: note Moses
p. 33: a reflection on the setting; note also the self-referential "rope's end."
p. 34-35: anthropology v. demonology
p. 36: reflections on the trickster
p. 41: note how deeply the frame has drawn the reader in:
Shahrazad and the king --> Story #2 (the fisherman and the demon) --> Story
#2.a. (Yunan and Duban) --> Story #2.a.i. (the husband and the parrot)
p. 42: the conclusion: how illustrative is it to the context?
p. 43: monsters! and homophagy
p. 44: the conclusion: how illustrative is the vizier's excursus? What does irony tell us
about narrative, or a narrator?
p. 45: Note delay, and how it is effected
p. 48: Note delay again (formulaic), but this time unfulfilled! Other examples?
p. 60: reversal
p. 61, 63: again with races: what does this say about context?
p. 66: MAJOR STORY C: the porter and the three ladies
p. 67: consider the role of fashion in description and characterization; also "like those
celebrated by the poets;" also function of a catalogue
p. 68: blason: specialized ecphrasis (cf. Song of Solomon; Shakespeare's Sonnet 130)
p. 69: formula repeated
p. 70: significance of three or four - Euclidian irony?
p. 73-76: catalogue of another type; burlesque (hedonism); great lengths for a joke; is
"refined" formulaic or ironic?
p. 78: note the footnote for historical orientation
p. 84: hospitality - cf. xenia from the beginning of the course
p. 88-89: cf. Snow White for the folklore trope
p. 90: incest. note "the ugly deed."
p. 91: fate / destiny (note its frequency)
p. 92: a description of humanistic inquiry, with textual criticism thrown in the mix!
p. 94: note the heartbreak of the humanities!
p. 97: rashness: cf. the rash boon
p. 98: is there comedy in sneaking away?; also, the Persian gentleman disguise
p. 101: prolonged agony of the winking and verses capped off with dismemberment
p. 102: note how grammar represents the frame
p. 105: finally, someone who can appreciate the humanities!
p. 106-107: calligraphy and reliability; also, the absurd
p. 109: Hebrew and talismans
p. 113: here and throughout, Baghdad is always a journey to the center
p. 120: a grand tale to illustrate destiny / fate; note "god's will"
p. 123: fate and fortune
p. 124: proleptic curiosity
p. 127: note the marks of beauty (again)
p. 129: the bluebeard trope
p. 131: temptation (cf. tradition e.g. Genesis 3)
p. 135: the explicit metaphor of fate: "'the pen has brought to pass that which had been
decreed;'" also, a woman in a powerful position?; also, a good man is hard to find
p. 138: blason again: this time for a man
p. 139: repetition of trope: cf. the 2nd old man's tale (p. 26-29). Why dogs?
p. 140: notice the idiom: green with envy
p. 142: fashion (again) and the wealthy widow: contrast with previous woman as far as
autonomy?
p. 147: dueling verses; also, the role of La Veille throughout the story?
p. 149: note the deus ex machina and the sudden need for justice, a foretaste of the
next story also
p. 150: reflections on the "happy" ending -- doesn't it strike you as actors in search of a
plot?; also, what the hell happened to the porter?
p. 151: MAJOR STORY D: the story of the three apples; note from the start the framing
of a Law & Order SVU episode
p. 152: cf. the wisdom of Solomon
p. 153: the evidence, and a story of false infidelity (cf. coronis)
p. 155: all because of that black slave?
p. 156: cf. other apple stories: name engraved (esp. judgment of Paris, but also
Alcothoe; Cydippe?)
p. 156-157: once again, intratext of stories that delay punishment by death
p. 162: in this tale the focus on women's beauty gives way to that of men
p. 165-166: father's advice: a. don't talk to people; b. don't oppress; c. better to keep
quiet...; d. don't drink; e. be thrifty
p. 174: money can't buy me love? - it works with the tambourine girls here. notice how it
goes against the advice of dad - at least in that last respect
p. 177: (and the pages leading up) - the treatment of the freak: monkey, toy, abusive
poetry; even heaven is against him. cf. the hunchback later on?
p. 178: so much for the hunchback. also, bride finally named
p. 181: it invites the question: is there "point" in repeating any of this? (motifs, tropes,
formulae, etc.)
p. 184: again, providence.
p. 192: note how his mother, though, is never named; note also how the mention of her
serves as a transition to her tale
p. 194: this story should be written down!
p. 203: notice how human agents effect providence
p. 206: the quality of the ending: there's still a dead woman (now quite forgotten? cf. the
end of Job)
p. 206: MAJOR STORY E: the story of the hunchback
p. 207-208: the last supper - a setting for another murder-mysterY?
p. 209: nope -- the hunchback is again an object, a matter of inconvenience, like yard
waste - a hot potato
p. 210: Chinese, Jew, Muslim, Christian; also, doesn't this start to sound like Weekend
at Bernie's?
p. 213: tired ... without any result
p. 227: money CAN'T buy me love
p. 228: finally, someone denies that the story is amazing!; also, significance of the
mutilations?; and the multiply-mutilated brothers of the barber to follow?
p. 238: but what about the big toes?
p. 241: consider the genre of travel literature
p. 243: no one is safe from the treachery of women
p. 248-249: a sort of closure prior to the tale of the barber: "it is not stranger or more
amazing ..." - and he's right. These AREN'T very good stories are they? The impt
question is: why not? They are of a distinct quality & theme ... and they lack something
as compared to the others. What is it? Brief analysis will show this, and prepare the
audience for the entertaining factor of the barber's tale.
p. 250: misogyny; a gang?; la veille
p. 255: the liberal arts
p. 260: if you've not noticed by now, this story is going to be the one that turns out to be
the most entertaining - perhaps a joke on the reader or audience who puts up with it to
the end - here there are catalogues once again, but purely for the extent of the
narrative. Note how humor turns on the common theme of delay also!
p. 261: very talkative people
p. 264-265 etc.: a cross between a boor and a parasite; note the altruism of the barber
p. 266: an historical note to consider re: the collection and edition of the stories
p. 267: notice the irony of "realization" - retardation
p. 292: concession paid to the storyteller, but leave this city ...
p. 294: a withering twist ending: the hunchback liveth
p. 295: MAJOR STORY F: the story of Nur al-Din Ali ibn-Bakkar and the slave-girl
Shams al-Nahar
p. 297: notice the footnote & once again the elaborate frames of the story
p. 310-311: is anyone getting sick of the lovesickness yet?
p. 328: again I ask, is anyone getting sick of the lovesickness? This is worse than a jr hi
reenactment of Romeo & Juliet
p. 329: a swoon? again? gimme a break! a couple of things to notice: the role of the gobetween; the nature of epistolary (the substance of the go-between's communique); the
role of song & verse; and once again, the delay delay delay of consummation
p. 332: the gang questioning: and love redeems them: a real amor vincit omnia story
p. 339: DUN DUN DUN! Finally. the affair is out. 45 pages later. with 4 to go. Sigh
p. 342: and Ali ibn-Bakkar finally dies
p. 343: and so does Shams al-Nahar. Not with a bang? ... Reflections on the
clausitherion motif & means of extending the narrative?
p. 344: MAJOR STORY G: the story of the slave-girl Anis al-Jalis and Nur al-Din Ali ibn
Khaqan
p. 346: notice liberal arts again, this time in the education of a slavegirl
p. 349: defloration - and only 3 times - at the price of 10000 dinars
p. 365: concern for xenia again - at the last possible moment
p. 370: how deception meets deception - and coded with happy coincidence to come?
p. 374: the caliph like Henry v
p. 382-383: a reunion - and finally a happily ever after?
p. 383: MAJOR STORY H: the story of Jullanar of the sea
p. 384-385: notice how formula has become abbreviated
p. 387: amazing she's remained a virgin - a mystery
p. 390: these are mer-people
p. 392: ...fire-breathing mer-people
p. 394: the importance of a son
p. 396: more liberal arts
p. 401: love at first ecphrasis
p. 405: a proverb: a girl needs a husband or a grave
p. 414-415: the city of the magicians: cf. Circe with Queen Lab: Lab means the sun
p. 420: sex as spell
p. 424: notice the narrative foreshadowing: but beware
p. 428: this was not a very good story; also, the end of the matter is the taking of
virginity, and the gladness caused by the ability to deflower; also note Hawaddy's ps:
how charged is this culturally, literarily, etc.?