• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

272 REVIEWS the 1960s and 1970s. The reviewer believes the author could have made greater use of it. A name index would be desirable. Stephan Guth's book is the result of conscientious research efforts and a great enthusiasm for the chosen subject. It contributes notably to the understanding of current literary developments in Egypt. Anyone dealing with modern Egyp- tian literature will find in it much valuable information and stimulating ideas. Charles University, Prague JAROSLAVOLIVERIUS DAVID PINAULT, Story-telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights, Leiden, E.J. Brill 1992. IX, 262 pp. (Studies in Arabic Literature. Supplements to the Journal of Arabic Literature, ed. M.M. Badawi and J. N. Mattock, Vol. XV). This book has its origin in a doctoral dissertation, finished in 1986 at the University of Pennsylvania. The author wants to address the general reader as well as the student of Arabic literature, so he gives all the Arabic passages in translation and summarizes the plots of the stories before he analyzes them. He defines his main purpose as to find out "What narrative techniques are favored by the Alf Lailah story tellers for engaging an audience? And: In what ways does the redactor make use of pre-existent material?" (p. IX). To be able to answer this question he compares the different printed versions of the stories he analyzes: Bflaq (II), Macnaghten (not MacNaghten), to a very limited extent Habicht and, of course, the Leiden edition of Galland's manuscript by Muhsin Mahdi. He also compares some of the stories he analyzes with similar or nearly identical stories which he has found in hitherto unpublished manuscripts of anthologies of popular narrative independent of "The Nights", to be found in some North African and French libraries. After a (rather insufficient) resume of the history of Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, the author concentrates on "selected story-telling techniques from the Nights" (p. 16-30). These are 1. "repetitive designation', i.e. "repeated reference to some character or object which appears insignificant when first mentioned but which reappears later to intrude suddenly on the narrative", thus creating "an effect of apparently foreshadowing and allowing the audience the pleasure of recogni- tion at that later moment when the object reappears and proves significant" (p. 16 ff.); 2. "Leitwortstil", as coined by M. Buber and F. Rosenzweig and applied to the field of Biblical studies; 3. "thematic patterning and formal pat- terning", the former meaning "the distribution of recurrent concepts and moralistic motifs among the various incidents and frames of a story", the latter "the organization of the events, actions and gestures which constitute a nar- rative", which, "when done well, allows the audience the pleasure of discerning and anticipating the structure of the plot when its unfolds" (p. 22 f.); 4. "dramatic visualization", i.e. "the representing of an object or character with an abundance of descriptive detail" (p. 25 f., in contrast to "summary presen- tation"). Under these four main aspects the author analyzes the following stories: "The fisherman and the genie/enchanted prince cycle", p. 31-80, "Tales of Harin al-Rashid, his vizier ja'far, and the poet Abu Nuwas", i.e., "The three apples", "The false Caliph", "Caliphal adventures in unpublished North African manuscripts", p. 82-147, "The city of brass", p. 148-239, where 273 he analyzes at rather great length the "Story-tellers' use of sources", p. 210- 225. In the last chapter, "Of demons, hunchbacks and Barmecide feasts: Con- cluding notes on story-telling techniques in the Arabian Nights", p. 240-51, he concentrates on the presentation of some shorter or longer humorous or merry tales of "The Nights". As to the comparison of analogous texts as an "unfortunately rather underutilized source in literary studies of the Alf Laylah" (p. X), H. and S. Grotzfeld have already compared anecdotes found especially in Adab works and the Alf Laylah in their book Die Erzdhlungen aus 'Tausendundeiner Nacht', Darm- stadt 1984 (Ertrage der Forschung), as I myself have compared different (printed) forms of some longer stories, especially the frame story, "Jullanar the maiden from the sea", " Sinbad the sailor", "the Ebony horse" in my book Tausendundeine Nacht. Eine Einführung, München, Zürich 1987. There, in my arti- cle "Drei Geschichten aus 'Tausendundeiner Nacht," Oriens 32/1990, p. 139- 77, and in my forthcoming article "Socio-cultural Differences: Sensual Pleasures and Sensuality in the Alf Laylah wa-Laylah and in Some of its European Translations" I have indicated differences between the Arabic originals and various European translations. But, of course, neither of these two books, (which the author evidently did not use) concentrated their analyses on the special points Pinault exposes, although he himself does not everywhere in his analyses bring out all these points. At any rate the comparison makes evident again that the second Bulaq edition and the Calcutta edition are very near to one another and that at least in some of the stories analyzed here, Bulaq and Calcutta "expand passages" (p. 249) in comparison to Leiden; I could not find this out concerning the stories which I have analyzed. So the author comes to the conclusion that "special rank should not be granted to one edition over another as being somehow definitive" (probably against Muhsin Mahdi), (p. 250). As to the author's statement of the rendering of the Bulaq and the Calcutta text "in literary fusha" (p. 109) one has to admit the exception in the Calcutta edition of the negative with mush and ma instead of la and lam and other expres- sions. The Breslau (Habicht) edition has preserved the colloquial/Middle Arabic of the texts which Ibn al-Najjar copied, as Muhsin Mahdi has with the edition of Galland's manuscript. So stories from these last mentioned editions appear much more as "oral narratives" and are characteristically more lively, than especially those found in the second Bulaq printing, many of which come near to the German "Buchmarchen", literarized stories. But even the shape of these stories reveals their oral origin, especially in the long dialogues which could be performed by the narrator or, perhaps, different narrators, similar to stage per- formances (in contrast, e.g., to stories for which we do not have any Oriental original but which Galland incorporated into the last volume of his "Les mille et une nuits" and which have found their way from there into other European translations, even into the more modern translations like that of R. Burton, which are based mostly directly on Arabic texts, not on Galland. But Galland's "recension" has moulded the picture of the "Arabian Nights" in Europe and we should not forget that all the later, complete manuscripts of the "Alf Laylah wa-Laylah" were composed in Egypt after the vast success of Galland's "Les mille et une nuits" in Europe. As to Chapter I, the "Introduction to the 'Arabian Nights'" it is curious that the author has neglected some more modern research especially that of H. and S. Grotzfeld, mentioned above, and that he does not refer to M. Abdel-Halim's .

Load more

  2

Copy Link