The Arabian Nights and Orientalism : Perspectives From East and West

"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."--Bloomsbury Publishing Cover Contents Preface by Robert Irwin Introduction: The Imagined Other and the Reflected Self (Yuriko Yamanaka, Tetsuo Nishio) I. Motifs and Formulas 1. The 'Arabian Nights' in Comparative Folk Narrative Research (Ulrich Marzolph) 2. Mythological Constituents of Alf laylah wa laylah (Hasan El-Shamy) 3. Formulas and Formulaic Pictures: Elements of Oral Literature in the 'Thousand and One Nights' (Kathrin Muller) 4. Repetitivenes in the 'Arabian Night': Openness as Self-Foundation (Etsuko Aoyagi) II. Sources and Influences 5. Alexander in the 'Thousand and One Nights' and the Ghazali Connection (Yuriko Yamanaka) 6. The 'Arabian Nights' in Modern Japan: A Brief Historical Sketch (Hideaki Sugita) 7. The 'Arabian Nights' and Orientalism from a Japanese Perspective (Tetsuo Nishio) III. Text and Image 8. The Evolution of the 'Arabian Nights' Illustrations: An Art Historical Review (Kazue Kobayashi) 9. Body, Voice and Gaze: Text and Illustration in the Frame Story of the 'Thousand and One Nights' (Akiko Motoyoshi Sumi and Claus Cluver) 10. The Image of Sheherazade in French and English Editions of the 'Thousand and One Nights' (Margaret Sironval) Bibliography Index Index of Cycles and Takes from the 'Nights' To commemorate the tercentenary of the first Western edition of The Arabian Nights, Yamanaka and Nishio marry Western and Japanese perspectives to analyse the rich cross-cultural fertilization that ensued. The Arabian Nights and Orientalism examines the tales' narrative motifs, and relates them to other cultures, traditions, and forms of representation. Yamanka and Nishio place the tales in a whole range of new contexts, from 19th century British feminism to ancient Greek romance. The Arabian Nights and Orientalism explores the interplay between image and text in various editions, and sheds ne