The Arabian Nights East and West Narratives and Desires Professor: Maurice A. Pomerantz Office: 50 Washington Square South, Rm. 202 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Thursdays 1-3 or by appt. Phone: 212-998-8887

Teaching Assistant: Masha Kirasirova Email: [email protected]

 

Course Description This course is a comprehensive introduction to the group of tales known as the 1001 Nights or Arabian Nights. The first section of this course, “Introducing the Nights,” will provide some important historical and cultural context for understanding the Arabian Nights tales in classical Arabic literature and medieval Islamic culture. The second section of the course, “Reading the Nights,” will cover a variety of approaches to the study of the Arabian Nights and an in-depth reading of several major tale cycles. The final section of the course, “Nights after the Nights,” will consider many stories, novels, plays and films that have been inspired by the Nights and the contexts in which these works of art were produced.

Grading 15% Class attendance and participation. Class attendance is mandatory with the exception of illness or family emergencies. Please be on time to class. Attendance at two of the four scheduled movie/play productions is required. 20% Midterm One 20% Midterm Two 25% Final Exam 20% Final Project

Books for Purchase A.S. Byatt, The Djinn in the Nightengale’s Eye and Other Stories (New York: Vintage, 1994). Hussein Haddawy (trans.), The Arabian Nights (New York: Norton, 1990). Hussein Haddawy (trans.), Sindbad and Other Stories (New York: Norton, 1995). Robert Irwin, Nights Horses and the Desert (New York: Anchor Books, 1999). Robert Irwin, Arabian Nights: A companion (London: Penguin, 1993). Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories (London: Penguin, 1990).

Suggested further Readings John Barth, Chimera (New York: Random House, 1972). Ulrich Marzolph, The Arabian Nights Reader (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2006). Jason Grote, 1001 (New York: Samuel French, 2009).

N.B. All of these titles are available for sale at the NYU bookstore. These titles have also been placed on Reserve at Bobst. Portions of some of these books will also be placed online (marked with an *) on the Blackboard site belonging to this course.

Part One: Introducing the Nights   January  20   Introduction     January  27th     The First Night A Frame Stpry Listening  to  the  Voice  of  Shahrazad   Arabian Nights (Haddawy trans.), 2-21. Robert Irwin, Nights, Horses and the Desert, 1-67. Robert Irwin, The Arabian Nights: A Companion, 1-62. Jorge Luis Borges, “The Thousand and One Nights”* Supplemental Enno Littman, “Alf laylah wa-laylah” Encyclopedia of Islam Second Edition Muhsin Jasim Ali, “Growth of Scholarly Interest in the Nights” in ANR, 1-21

February 3 The Second Night: The Story of the merchant and the Demon “A  long  time  ago  it  was  (or  it  was  not)”:  The  making  of  a  story  collection   Arabian Nights (Haddawy), 21-36. Robert Irwin, Arabian Nights: A Companion, 63-102. Robert Irwin, Nights, Horses and the Desert, 68-147. “Early Witnesses,” from Arabian Nights, (New York: Norton, 2009), pp. 353-355.* Josef Horowitz, “The Origins of the Arabian Nights,” from Arabian Nights (New York: Norton, 2009), pp. 386-409.* Supplementary Readings: S.D. Goitein, “Oldest Documentary Evidence for the title Alf Laila wa-laila,” in ANR, 83-86.* Nabia Abbot, “A Ninth Century Fragment,” in ANR, 21-83.*

 

February  10     The THird Night: The Story of the Fisherman and the Demon “If  you  are  not  sleepy,  tell  us  a  story”:  Tellers,  Audiences  and  Folklore   Arabian Nights (Haddawy trans.), 36-80. Irwin, Arabian Nights, 103-139; 213-236. Supplementary Readings: El-Shamy, “The Oral Connections of the Arabian Nights,” Arabian Nights’ Encyclopedia, 9-13.*

El-Shamy, “Siblings in Alf layla wa-layla,”in AN in Transnational Perspective, 83-101.* Sadhana Naidhani, “The Teacher and the Taught: Structures and Meaning in the Arabian Nights and the Panchatantra” in AN in Transnational Perspective, 119-134.*

Part Two: Reading the Nights February  17  

The Fourth Night: The Porter and the Three Ladies Desires  Deferred:  Narratives  and  Framing  in  the  Arabian  Nights Arabian Nights, 80-181. Irwin, Arabian Nights, 214-236. Tzvetan Todorov, “Narrative Men,” in ANR, 226-239.* Andras Hamori, “The Music of the Spheres” from On the Art of Arabic Literature (Princeton: Princeton, 1974).* Lee Haring, “Framing in Narrative,” in AN in Traditional Perspective, 135-153.* Supplementary Readings Mia Gerhardt, “Frame Stories,” Arabian Nights, (New York: Norton, 2009), 433-42.*

 

February  24   The Fifth Night: The Three Apples and the Two Viziers The  Desire  of  Meaning:  Formal  Readings  of  Individual  Tales   Arabian Nights, 181-248. Roger Allen, “An Analysis of the ‘Tale of the Three Apples’ from the Thousand and One Nights,” in ANR, 239-248. * Assia Djebar, “The Woman in Pieces.”* Andras Hamori, “The Tale of Two Viziers,” Arabian Nights (New York: Norton, 2009), 453-470.* Supplementary Reading: Peter Heath, “Romance as Genre within the Arabian Nights,” in ANR, 170-225.*

MIDTERM #1 March  3   The Sixth Night : The Hunchback’s Tale Meaning of Desire: Gender, Sexuality, and Psychology in the Nights Arabian Nights, 248-320. Robert Irwin, The Arabian Nights, 159-177. Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment (New York: Vintage, 1989), 86-90. * Daniel Beaumont, Slave of Desire (Madison: Farleigh Dickenson University Press, 2002), 105-125. (32-45 for Lacan).*

Jerome Clinton, “Madness and its Cure in the 1001 Nights,” in Arabian Nights, (New York: Norton, 2009), 485-499. *

 

March  10  

The Seventh Night: The Hundback’s tale continued Between the Magic and the Mundane: The Fantastic and the Real in the Nights Arabian Nights, 325-356. Robert Irwin, The Arabian Nights, 140-158;178-213.* Roy P. Mottahedeh, “Ajāʾib in The Thousand and One Nights.”* Jamel Eddine Bencheikh, “Historical and Mythical Baghdad”* Supplementary Readings Muhsin Mahdi, “From History to Fiction: The Tale Told by the King’s Steward.”* Andras Hamori, “The City of Brass: An Allegory from the Arabian Nights,” in ANR, 283-297.

 

March  17  Break    

Part Three: Nights after the Nights: Orphans, Children, and Other Offspring   March  24    

The Eighth Night: The Tale of Sindbad and Ala al-din “Adopting  the  Nights?”:  Orphan  Tales  and  Children  of  the  Road   Sindbad, 3-61; 97-197.* Peter Molan, “Sinbad the Sailor a Commentary on the Ethics of Violence”* Michael Cooperson, “The Monstrous Births of Alladin”* Supplementary Reading Madeleine Dobie, “Translation in the Contact Zone: Antoine Galland’s Mille et une nuits: contes arabes.”* Wen-chin Ouyang, “Sinbad the Sailor in Literature and Film.”*

March 31

The Ninth Night Translators,  Travelers  and  Transgressors  in  the  18th  and  19th  centuries   Borges,  “Translators  of  the  Nights.”*  

Fatima  Moussa-­‐Mahmoud,  “English  Travelers  and  the  Arabian  Nights”*   Crebillion,  Le  Sopha  (selected  passages).*   William  Beckford  Vathek*     Burton,  “Introduction  to  the  Nights.”*     Supplemental  Readings     Donna  Landry,  “William  Beckford’s  Vathek  and  the  Uses  of  Oriental  Re-­‐enactment.”*   Tim  Fulford,  “Coleridge  and  the  Oriental  Tale”*  

MIDTERM #2   April  7    

The Tenth Night: Becoming  the  Nights:  Passages  from  the  Romantics  to  the  Moderns     A.S. Byatt, Djinn in the Nightengale’s Eye, 95-274.   Edgar  Allen  Poe,  “The  1002  Night,”  in  Arabian  Nights  (New  York:  Norton,  2009),  356-­‐372.*   Marcel  Proust,  Remembrance  of  Things  Past,  in  Arabian  Nights,  372-­‐375.*   Supplementary  Readings   Nance,  How  the  Arabian  Nights  Inspired  the  American  Dream  1790-­1935,  excerpt.  

April  14  

The Eleventh Night: The  Nights  Arabic     Naguib Mahfuz, Arabian Nights and Days, all. Maher Jarrar, “The Arabian Nights and the Contemporary Arabic Novel.”* Taha Husayn, “The Dreams of Scheherazade,” in Arabian Nights (New York: Norton, 2009), 375-77.* Fedwa Malti-Douglas, “Shaharazad Feminist.”*

April  21  

The Twelfth Night The  Nights  Postmodern  and  Transnational     Salman  Rushdie,  Haroun  and  the  Sea  of    Stories,  all.       Suggested  Reading   John  Barth,  Chimera,  pp.  1-­‐56.  

FINAL PROJECT DUE

  April  24  2:00  Performance  of  1001  at  Montclair  State  University  and  meeting  with   Jason  Grote.       April  28    

The Thirteenth Night: The  Nights  on  Stage  and  Screen   Robert  Irwin,  “The  Nights  at  the  Movies.”*   Jason  Grote,  1001,  all.      

FINAL  EXAM  T.B.A.