1st Edition
The Thousand and One Nights Space, Travel and Transformation
This volume discusses The Thousand and One Nights' themes of space and travel showing how they are used not only as a setting in which the story unfolds, but also as the dynamic force which propels the heroes and the story to the final dénouement.
These events often symbolize a process of transformation, in which the hero has to search for his destined role or strive to attain the object of his desire. In this way, themes of travel are the narrative backbone of stories of various genres including love, religion, magic and adventure.
This book not only gives a fresh approach to many stories of the collection, but also proposes new insights in the nature of The Thousand and one Nights as a self-reflexive narrative and is essential reading for scholars of Arabic literature.
Introduction.
Chapter 1 - Travelling, boundaries and narratives
Chapter 2 - Roads to power
Chapter 3 - Night and day: the two faces of man
Chapter 4 - Marginality, individuality and the traveller
Chapter 5 - The Spirit of place
Chapter 6 - The domains of love
Chapter 7 - Magic and the logic of narrative space
Chapter 8 - Some conclusions
Bibliography
Biography
Richard van Leeuwen