The influence of the thousand and one nights in “A Thousand Nights in a Night” novel by Sawsan Jamil Hassan

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Arabic Language and Literature

2 Member of faculty

Abstract

Revealing the feminist narrative discourse which the narrator opens in feminist fiction, is an attempt to reveal the status and reality of the female. It also became clear that Scheherazade, in the primary story of “Thousand and One Nights,” could narration and take the image of the woman and preserve her presence in front of “Shahryar representing the male gender.” , Sawsan Jamil writes her novel “A Thousand and One Nights,” inspired by Thousand and One Night, as a female novelist model, a space for her voice to speak about the issue of femininity under the authority of manhood in society through various axes. The title includes the night and what it refers to in vigil and talking. Except the narrator “Dima” addresses a man with the title “Mawlay” and refers to herself with the word Scheherazade through the available stories considered the narrator’s memories and personal experiences. Comparative method between the two novels, the first comparison between them appears in the title. In Sawsan Jamil's novel, the title has its own significance and purpose. In addition, there are differences between how the mythical Shahrazad and Dima represent the identity of the Arab woman in front of the man. There are some episodes,, but they are not completely in the Scheherazade way, as well as illumination of the “ego” identity of women in Arab society, through their relations to Dima’s life, which illuminates her experience. And the period in which she lived in front of the requirements of Scheherazade's "ego".

Keywords

Main Subjects