The Thousand and One Nights (14th C.)

The Thousand and One Nights is a fascinating collection of Middle Eastern literary works.  The genre is Arabic literature in the form of frame tales. Frame tales are stories in which they are set up to tell a story within another.  The text was written by a various number of unknown authors.  The production date is scattered over time depending on the specific piece.  The Thousand and One Nights encompass an assortment of exciting stories that cover romance, betrayal, mystery and deceit.  

Questions for the class

·         Did you find any symbolism within the story?

·         List some comparisons and contrasts of the story to modern culture.

·         The text is very sexually explicit. Was that a common occurrence in other texts during that time?

·         Do some further research on the origin of the text. The text is Arabic but has some Persian derivation. How did this text come together if by so many different authors?

Work Cited

Puchner, Martin. "The Thousand and One Nights." The Norton Anthology: World Literature. Shorter Third ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1173-1199. Print.

http://www.afantasticallibrarian.com/2011/04