Framing Narratives in Premodern Literature: Arabic, Persian, Hebrew
Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Vol. 24 No. 1 (2024): FrNarr, guest-edited by Johannes Stephan and Beatrice Gruendler
The application of the term framing to Arabic texts is commonly confined to the frame tale type of which the Arabic tradition produced one of the most popular works, "The Thousand and One Nights." This issue transcends the study of the Nights and the associated story-within-a-story trope, moving toward a recon-stitution of the study of the frame tale as part of literary framings more broadly conceived, which include multiple notions and applicabilities. In so doing, “Framing Narratives” aims to fill in a lacuna both in the study of frame tales in the Arabic and other Middle Eastern traditions such as "Kalīla and Dimna," "Barlaam and Josaphat" and "the Seven Sages" in their different versions and the broadening of the framing category itself.
Table of Content
• Johannes Stephan and Beatrice Gründler, "From the Frame Tale to Framing Intertextuality. An Introduction"
• Ulrich Marzolph, "A Phenomenology of the Middle Eastern Frame-Tale Collections"
• Said Yaktine, القصة الإطار والجواب السردي في كليلة ودمنة [Frame Story and Narrative Response in "Kalīla and Dimna"]
• Zina Maleh, "Beyond Fictionality. Three Uses of the Frame in Tanūkhī’s 'al-Faraj baʿd al-shidda'"
• Guy Ron-Gilboa, "Demonic Narrator, Angelic Interpreter. Embedding in Two Variants of a Solomonic Legend"
• Pegah Shahbaz, "The Persian 'Bilawhar wa Buyūdhas(a)f(a)' as a Mirror for Princes"
• Theodore S. Beers, "Scripture as Frame in Naṣr Allāh Munshī’s 'Kalīla and Dimna'"
• Lale Behzadi, "Inside and Outside. Reflections on Containment and Transgression in 'The Book of Misers' by al-Jāḥiẓ"
• Enass Khansa, "On Rupture and Temporary Endings. The Apostrophic Frame of Ibn Shuhayd al-Andalusī’s (d. 426/1035) Satire on Inspiration and Literary Theft"
• Wen-chin Ouyang, "Framing and Meaning. Coincidence, Entanglement and Wonder in 'The Thousand and One Nights'"
• Richard van Leeuwen, "Early Modern Hajj Accounts as Framed Narratives"