The Arabian Nights in Contemporary World Cultures
Global Commodification, Translation, and the Culture Industry
$39.99 (P)
- Author: Muhsin J. al-Musawi, Columbia University, New York
- Date Published: August 2021
- availability: Available
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781108474856
$
39.99
(P)
Hardback
Other available formats:
eBook
Looking for an examination copy?
If you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an examination copy. To register your interest please contact collegesales@cambridge.org providing details of the course you are teaching.
-
The stories in the Thousand and One Nights, or the Arabian Nights, are familiar to many of us: from the tales of Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba and his forty thieves, to the framing story of Scheherazade telling these stories to her homicidal husband, Shahrayar. This book offers a rich and wide-ranging analysis of the power of this collection of tales that penetrates so many cultures and appeals to such a variety of predilections and tastes. It also explores areas that were left untouched, like the decolonization of the Arabian Nights, and its archaeologies. Unique in its excavation into inroads of perception and reception, Muhsin J. al-Musawi's book unearths means of connection with common publics and learned societies. Al-Musawi shows, as never before, how the Arabian Nights has been translated, appropriated, and authenticated or abused over time, and how its reach is so expansive as to draw the attention of poets, painters, illustrators, translators, editors, musicians, political scientists like Leo Strauss, and novelists like Michel Butor, James Joyce and Marcel Proust amongst others. Making use of documentaries, films, paintings, novels and novellas, poetry, digital forums and political jargon, this book offers nuanced understanding of the perennial charm and power of this collection.
Read more- A comprehensive and multi-disciplinary study of the Arabian Nights in world cultures
- Uses social science and literary theory to account for the celebration, appropriation, and translation of the book over three hundred years
- Analyses a wide variety of sources including documentaries, films, paintings, novels and novellas, poetry, digital forums, and political jargon
Awards
- Winner, 2022 Sheikh Zayed Book Award, Arabic Culture in Other Languages Category
Reviews & endorsements
‘This is a work of incredible erudition. Al-Musawi tells the story of the Nights, orientalism, world literature, and structuralism simultaneously, revealing a network of readings, influences, and critical practices that allow us to see literature in a new light.’ Tarek El-Ariss, Dartmouth College
See more reviews‘A scholarly study of magisterial magnitude in both theoretical and textual terms. Briefly stated, few can compose so wizardly and converse so enchantingly, indeed so Shahrazadingly, about Alf Layla wa-Layla as a cherished world literary treasure and a prized global cultural commodity as al-Musawi. One is impressed but never surprised.’ Nizar F. Hermes, The University of Virginia
‘Al-Musawi brings a lifetime of Arabian Nights’ scholarship to bear on his expansive new study of its generative role in the Western and Global literary and cultural imagination from the 18th century to the present. Ranging from Romanticism through Modernism to Post-Modernism, al-Musawi compellingly demonstrates how this protean Arabic story collection has shaped the novel, music, fine arts, and film.’ Suzanne Stetkevych, Georgetown University
Customer reviews
Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review
Review was not posted due to profanity
×Product details
- Date Published: August 2021
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781108474856
- length: 344 pages
- dimensions: 235 x 157 x 29 mm
- weight: 0.771kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Introduction: the stunning growth of a constellation
1. The Arabian Nights: a European legacy?
2. The Scheherazade factor
3. Engagements in narrative
4. The 'hostile dynasty': rewriting the Arabian Nights
5. The archaeology of A Thousand and One Nights
6. Signatures and affiliates
7. Decolonizing the Arabian Nights?
8. Invitation to discourse
Bibliography
Appendix A. Editions worldwide
Appendix B. Selections from a comparative study between Grub Street translation of Galland (reprinted in Novelist magazine), and Haddawy's translation of Muhsin Mahdi's edition of Galland's original Arabic manuscript of Galland.-
Resources for
The Arabian Nights in Contemporary World Cultures
Muhsin J. al-Musawi
General Resources
Find resources associated with this title
Type Name Unlocked * Format Size Showing of
This title is supported by one or more locked resources. Access to locked resources is granted exclusively by Cambridge University Press to instructors whose faculty status has been verified. To gain access to locked resources, instructors should sign in to or register for a Cambridge user account.
Please use locked resources responsibly and exercise your professional discretion when choosing how you share these materials with your students. Other instructors may wish to use locked resources for assessment purposes and their usefulness is undermined when the source files (for example, solution manuals or test banks) are shared online or via social networks.
Supplementary resources are subject to copyright. Instructors are permitted to view, print or download these resources for use in their teaching, but may not change them or use them for commercial gain.
If you are having problems accessing these resources please contact lecturers@cambridge.org.
Related Books
related journals
Sorry, this resource is locked
Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org
Register Sign in» Proceed
You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.
Continue ×Are you sure you want to delete your account?
This cannot be undone.
Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.
If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.
×