Arabian Nights and Orientalism: Perspectives from East and West

by Tetsuo Nishio, Yuriko Yamanaka

Overview

The Arabian Nights and Orientalism in Resonance was especially commissioned to celebrate the tercentenary of the first Western edition of The Arabian Nights. This volume marries Western and Japanese perspectives on The Arabian Nights to provide a fascinating study of how this literary phenomenon brought about a unique and rich cross-cultural fertilization. The volume is divided into three sections: the first part deals with narrative motifs and styles; the second part examines the 'Nights' from a comparative point of view and the third part unfolds the relationship between the written text and its pictorial representation. Extensively illustrated throughout, The Arabian Nights and Orientalism in Resonance will be of interest to scholars of the Middle East as well as anyone who has ever fallen under the spell of Scheherazade's stories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781850437680
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/11/2006
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Yuriko Yamanaka is Assistant Professor at the National Museum of Ethnology, Japan. Tetsuo Nishio is Associate Professor at the National Museum of Ethnology, Japan. He has been leading a joint project on the Arabian Nights, and is author of 'The Arabian Nights Illustrated'. Robert Irwin has taught Arabic and Middle Eastern History at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London. He is also the Middle East editor for the Times Literary Supplement and an author of numerous books on Arabic literature, including 'The Arabian Nights: A Companion' (Tauris Parke Paperbacks).

Table of Contents

Motifs and Formulas * The Arabian Nights in Comparative Folk Narrative research—Ulrich Marzolph
• Mythological Constituants of Alf Layla wa Layla—Hasan El Shamy
• Formulas and Formulaic Pictures: Elements of Oral Literature in the Thousand and One Nights—Kathrin Müller
• On Repetitions in The Arabian Nights: Openness as Self-foundation—Etsuko Aoyagi
• Sources and Influences
• Alexander in the Thousand and One Nights and the GhazáIÐ Connection—Yuriko Yamanaka
• The Arabian Nights in Modern Japan: a Brief Historical Sketch— Hideaki Sugita
• The Arabian Nights' Vision: the Imagined Other - the Reflected Self—Tetsuo Nishio
• Text and Image
• Voice, Body, and Vision: Text and Illustration in the Frame Story of the Thousand and One Nights—Akiko Motoyoshi Sumi
• The Image of Sheherazade in French and English editions of the Thousand and One Nights (18th -19th centuries)

Editorial Reviews

""This volume marries western and Japanese perspectives on The Arabian Nights to provide a fascinating study of how this literary phenomenon brought about a unique and rich cross-cultural fertilisation."" --Middle East

From the Publisher