ISBN:
9780674055308
,
9780674065079
Language:
English
Pages:
XX, 540, [16] S.
,
Ill.
Edition:
Online-Ausg. 2011 Electronic reproduction; Available via World Wide Web
Parallel Title:
Print version Stranger Magic : Charmed States and the Arabian Nights
DDC:
398.22
Keywords:
Arabian nights Influence
;
Orientalism
;
Magic in literature
;
Myth in literature
;
Alf laila wa-laila
Abstract:
Main description: Our foremost theorist of myth, fairytale, and folktale explores the magical realm of the imagination where carpets fly and genies grant prophetic wishes. Stranger Magic examines the profound impact of the Arabian Nights on the West, the progressive exoticization of magic, and the growing acceptance of myth and magic in contemporary experience.
Abstract:
Biographical note: WarnerMarina: Marina Warner is Professor of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex and a distinguished writer of fiction, criticism, and history.
Abstract:
Main description: Our foremost theorist of myth, fairytales, and folktales explores the magical realm of the imagination where carpets fly, objects speak, dreams reveal hidden truths, and genies grant prophetic wishes. Stranger Magic examines the wondrous tales of the Arabian Nights, their profound impact on the West, and the progressive exoticization of magic since the eighteenth century, when the first European translations appeared. The Nights seized European readers’ imaginations during the siècle des Lumières, inspiring imitations, spoofs, turqueries, extravaganzas, pantomimes, and mauresque tastes in dress and furniture. Writers from Voltaire to Goethe to Borges, filmmakers from Raoul Walsh on, and countless authors of children’s books have adapted its stories. What gives these tales their enduring power to bring pleasure to readers and audiences? Their appeal, Marina Warner suggests, lies in how the stories’ magic stimulates the creative activity of the imagination. Their popularity during the Enlightenment was no accident: dreams, projections, and fantasies are essential to making the leap beyond the frontiers of accepted knowledge into new scientific and literary spheres. The magical tradition, so long disavowed by Western rationality, underlies modernity’s most characteristic developments, including the charmed states of brand-name luxury goods, paper money, and psychoanalytic dream interpretation. In Warner’s hands, the Nights reveal the underappreciated cultural exchanges between East and West, Islam and Christianity, and cast light on the magical underpinnings of contemporary experience, where mythical principles, as distinct from religious belief, enjoy growing acceptance. These tales meet the need for enchantment, in the safe guise of oriental costume.
Description / Table of Contents:
""Contents""; ""List of Illustrations""; ""Acknowledgements""; ""Introduction""; ""Part I: Solomon the Wise King ""; ""Story 1: The Fisherman and the Genie""; ""Chapter 1: Master of Jinn""; ""Story 2: The City of Brass""; ""Chapter 2: Riding the Wind: The Flying Carpet I""; ""Story 3: Prince Ahmed and Fairy Peri Banou""; ""Chapter 3: A Tapestry of Great Price: The Flying Carpet II""; ""Part II: Dark Arts; Strange Gods ""; ""Story 4: The Prince of the Black Islands""; ""Chapter 4: The Worst Witch""; ""Chapter 5: Egyptian Attitudes ""; ""Story 5: Hasan of Basra""
Description / Table of Contents:
""Chapter 6: Magians and Dervishes""""Story 6: A Fortune Regained""; ""Chapter 7: Dream Knowledge""; ""Part III: Active Goods ""; ""Chapter 8: �Everything You Desire to Know about the East . . .�""; ""Story 7: The Greek King and Doctor Douban""; ""Chapter 9: The Thing-World of the Arabian Nights""; ""Story 8: Abu Mohammed the Lazy""; ""Chapter 10: The Word of the Talisman""; ""Story 9: Marouf the Cobbler""; ""Chapter 11: The Voice of the Toy""; ""Chapter 12: Money Talks""; ""Part IV: Oriental Masquerades ""
Description / Table of Contents:
""Chapter 13: Magnificent Moustaches: Hamilton�s Fooling, Voltaire�s Impersonations """"Story 10: Rosebud and Uns al-Wujud the Darling Boy""; ""Story 11: The Jinniya and the Egyptian Prince""; ""Chapter 14: �Symbols of Wonder�: William Beckford�s Arabesque""; ""Chapter 15: Oriental Masquerade: Goethe�s West-Eastern Divan""; ""Part V: Flights of Reason ""; ""Story 12: Camar al-Zaman and Princess Badoura""; ""Chapter 16: Thought Experiments: Flight before Flight""; ""Chapter 17: Why Aladdin?""; ""Chapter 18: Machine Dreams""; ""Story 13: The Ebony Horse""
Description / Table of Contents:
""Chapter 19: The Shadows of Lotte Reiniger""""Story 14: Aladdin of the Beautiful Moles""; ""Chapter 20: The Couch: A Case History""; ""Story 15: Prince Ardashir and Hayat al-Nufus""; ""Conclusion: �All the story of the night told over . . .�""; ""Glossary""; ""Abbreviations""; ""The Stories""; ""Notes""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index""
Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index
,
Electronic reproduction; Available via World Wide Web
DOI:
10.4159/harvard.9780674065079
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