Beyond Fictionality
Three Uses of the Frame in Tanūkhī’s "al-Faraj baʿd al-shidda"
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.10122Abstract
According to Gérard Genette, frame narratives are one of few reliable textual markers of fictionality. While very different from the corpus studied by Genette, al-Tanūkhī’s (d. 384/994) compilation al-Faraj baʿd al-shidda includes many anecdotes featuring at least one instance of narrative framing, as well as many more anecdotes told on a single narrative level (after the usual introductory chain of transmitters). As such, the compilation presents a good case study for the link between fictionality and narrative levels in a premodern Arabic context. On the strength of many examples drawn from the compilation, this article describes three uses of frame narratives in the Faraj and argues that even if some of the compiled material thematizes questions of reports’ plausibility (rather than “fictionality”), narrative levels are not a reliable marker of stories considered to be more implausible. One use of the frame narrative in the Faraj is indeed in addressing a report’s plausibility (1), but other anecdotes achieve this without any such framing. Moreover, frame narratives also take on other functions whereby they neither flag nor are reliably associated with a story’s lesser plausibility. Such functions include anchoring a story’s narration within a familiar situation and highlighting the message of a narrative by setting up parallels between its different levels (2). Another function is to negotiate the incorporation of less familiar voices and content, remote in social milieu or geography from al-Tanūkhī’s life, into the world of the compilation (3). These different uses show that frame narratives are not reliable markers of fictionality in the Faraj, and that they were not artificially affixed onto the Faraj’s less plausible plots. Instead, they served different functions, introducing a wide variety of content and shaping the reception of stories by questioning their plausibility, yes, but also by exploiting and manipulating readers’ expectations, and by pushing the limits of spaces and perspectives incorporated into the Faraj’s overall message of deliverance after hardship.
Key words: Frame narratives, fictionality, plausibility, foreignness, al-Tanūkhī, al-Faraj baʿd al-shidda, compilation, Abbasid literature.
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