From the Frame Tale to Framing Intertextuality

An Introduction

Authors

  • Johannes Stephan
  • Beatrice Gründler

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.10119

Abstract

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 recon­stitution 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.

This introduction presents a comprehensive and cumulative definition of framing narratives including notions of mise en abyme, mise en reflet/mise en série, paratext, and parergon, among others. The overall issue will contain definitory and structural-functionalist attempts, with additional foci on the translingual variation of frame narratives, and the intertextual variation of frames, connecting the realms of adab and poetry, philosophical and anthological genres, and scripture.

Key words: Framing, frame narrative, Arabic literature, Kalīla wa-Dimna, The Thousand and One Nights, allegory of the man in the well, Gérard Genette, Werner Wolf, contextualist narratology

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Published

2024-04-27

How to Cite

Stephan, J., & Gründler, B. (2024). From the Frame Tale to Framing Intertextuality: An Introduction. Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, 24(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.10119

Issue

Section

Framing Narratives in Premodern Literature: Arabic, Persian, Hebrew