1001 Nights in the World Literary Imagination

Across centuries, innovators in every medium and style have been inspired by 1001 Nights, with its premodern collage of literary genres including prophets’ lives, travelogues, mystical love lyrics, and wine songs. The essays in 1001 Nights in the World Literary Imagination explore the magic of the work through the sources, translations, rewritings, and film versions that have enchanted audiences in cultural contexts including the Arab world, France, Russia, Turkey, Iran, India, Korea, and Japan.

As in the proverbial tale of the blind men and the elephant, readers of the stories from 1001 Nights can come away with the feeling that they have identified the “essence” of the work, only to discover that that another reader’s interpretation is completely different. The authors of these essays incorporate many interpretations and have become cultural intermediaries between East and West, as well as between past and present. This book imparts a deeper understanding of the Nights and an appreciation for its myriad layers, its previous lives, and its ever-new incarnations.