An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Sara Forcella (Postdoctoral Fellow 2022-23; Sapienza University of Rome)
Looking inward, looking outward: re-centering Arab(ic-language) criticism of The Thousand and One Nights
Being considered “as much a part of Western literary and cultural traditions as it is of the Eastern ones” (Malti-Douglas 1991, 41), The Thousand and One Nights owes its worldwide circulation to the interest that arose in the “West” after the publication of Galland’s French translation at the beginning of the 1700s. Given the extensive Western body of literary studies on this text, largely ignored is the fact that in the “Arab-majority world” a tradition of critical reception has also developed, at a later date. By offering examples of contemporary Arabic-language critical appraisals targeting the opening narrative of The Thousand and One Nights, this presentation highlights some of the “cultural logics” (Mufti 2016, 19) operating in the domestic reception of this work. Dealing with the question of the positioning of the text within its own literary tradition, and with representations of masculinity and femininity at the character level, these examples show the relevant and necessary contribution that Arab criticism can provide to the global debate on The Thousand and One Nights, encouraging a deeper understanding of the politics of its reception. This is a debate from which Arabic, as a language of literary analysis, has been largely absent and which, therefore, needs to be re-centered.
Click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/86535202023
Passcode: Vr8f3ew2