The Arabian Nights in Contemporary World Cultures
Clara Srouji-Shajrawi2023
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Abstract
The Arabian nights in contemporary World Literature was published in English by Cambridge University Press (2021). The Arabic translation, revised by Clara Srouji-Shajrawi, was published by "Kalima" – Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (2023). In his extensive study of the most popular and influential book in World Literature, the author, Prof. Muhsin Jasem al-Musawi (at Columbia University in New York), explores the Reception of the Arabian Nights in both Arabic literature and, especially, the Western literature, since its first translation into French by Antoine Galland. The wide popularity of the Arabian Nights and its appropriation by the West, in different forms, as novels, short stories, cinematic productions, paintings and other representations, prompted the author to deal with this phenomenon through the lens of "Orientalism" and "Colonialism". The book is multidisciplinary, addressing a huge number of Western books, Classic and modern Arabic books, articles, translations, and fictional works that were influenced by the "Arabian Nights". Hence, this book is academic in nature par excellence, and useful for students as well as scholars. It is an interesting book that should be read slowly for its condensed nature and use of specialized concepts in narratology, structuralism and postmodern literary approaches.
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Arab Culture and English Literature: An Affinity Under the Supervision of
The paper discusses the literary osmosis between Arab culture and English literature, more precisely it subtracts the issue of influencing and being influenced between the writers in the two cultures. As it shows the influencing on the Iraqi poet Badr Shaker Alsayab by the British poet T. S. Eliot, it also shows the influencing on Lord Alfred Tennyson by the Arabian poet Imru al-Qays. Many of Arab influences in the English literature are raised in this paper, in poetry also it discusses the influencing on the father of English poetry Geoffrey Chaucer by the Arabian Nights tales. In the novel, it discusses the influencing on Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe by the novel of Ibn Tufayl's Hayy Ibn Yaqzan. In drama it discusses the influencing of the famous story in the Arab culture of the hero and beau Antar Bin Shadad on the great poet and playwright William Shakespeare especially in his play Othello, more comparisons are discussed in this paper. At the end of the study, we conclude that the modern Arabic literature influenced by English literature, the English literature is also influenced by the Arab literature in the middle ages. The Arabian Nights was influential on many writers in the English literature. The mainspring of the influence on English writers caused a renewal and development of English literature. The translation movement helped to make the Arab culture influential on the civilizations around, including the influencing on the English literature. The Orientalists contributed to transfer the Arab Culture to Europe via translation of the Arab literature to their languages, and more other results are mentioned in the conclusion of the paper based on the literature .
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