The supernatural and the magic in The Thousand and One Nights

Author(s)

Christiane Damien

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2017-04-25

Examining board members

Mamede Mustafa Jarouche; Antonio Brancaglion Junior; Safa Alferd Abou Chahla Jubran; Suely Ferreira Lima; João Baptista de Medeiros Vargens

• Advisor: Mamede Mustafa Jarouche

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze the supernatural and magical elements available in the constitutive narratives of the founding nucleus of the Thousand and One Nights and the tales added to the book in the 18th century by its first translator, Antoine Galland. Since he acquired the manuscript, which is considered currently to be the oldest and the best one, the French orientalist not only translated the oldest collection of tales of the book, but also added new tales whose manuscripts were not found so far, for this reason, they were called \"orphan tales\". Comparing the tales belonging to the oldest collection of the book and the ones written by Galland, we conclude that the supernatural and magical beings play various roles transmitting different moral values and sócio-cultural conceptions. For this reason, we aim to identify, describe and analyze the roles of these elements in the narratives, taking into consideration their importance while generating the intrigue and the way they create meanings along the two narrative cycles built in various sócio-cultural contexts. After selecting the narratives in which the supernatural and magical elements play more influential roles in the storyline, we chose 23 tales as a corpus allowing us to observe clearly the role changes of the elements in each text. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/15737-9 - The supernatural and the magic in The Thousand and One Nights
• Grantee: Christiane Damien Codenhoto
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate