BASC70148 - Novels of the Roman & Islamic Empires: The Thousand and One Nights & The Golden Ass

Course Description

Both filled with wild adventures, The Thousand and One Nights and The Golden Ass are two of the earliest and most influential picaresque novels ever written. Apulieus’ Roman novel The Golden Ass (2nd century CE) is both comic and serious, a tale of indulgence, suffering, and redemption. The only surviving Roman novel, it involves us in the story of Lucius, who accidentally transforms himself into an ass and roams the Mediterranean coast in search of salvation; the travails of the narrator are supplemented with other core stories, including the myth of Cupid and Psyche. The Thousand and One Nights (aka Arabian Nights) is younger, with parts dating as early as 750 CE, while the basic structure was freely enlarged and adapted up to several centuries later. Set in locations spread across the silk road and into Africa, we follow a long series of loosely interlinked tales that include some of the core stories of the Islamic world. Here too we have a framing narrative based in redemption: the tale of the self-sacrificing Schahrazad educating an abusive and tyrannical king. The pairing will also allow us to see cultural links and differences. In order to get the most complete modern translation of The Thousand and One Nights, we will use both Yasmine Seale’s 2021 annotated translation as well as the Husain Haddawy translation (both published by Norton).

Course Syllabus

Notes

Online registration deadline: Thursday, June 16 at 5 pm CT

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