tories have shaped my life. As a child, I was exposed to stories from a variety of stories from a myriad of cultures. Kenyan, First Nations, Norse, Middle Eastern, and Greek myths served as my first bedtime stories. When I learned how to read, the stories I ingested became more varied. They were no longer solely fictional, nor were they so polarized. These taught me about history, people, imagination, morality, and the world outside of me. Stories also served as my primary method of connecting with people. Listening to their stories, sometimes telling my own, and talking about other stories is what allowed me to form deep connections with people extraordinarily different from my self.
My interest in learning was fostered by stories, however …show more content…
These stories offer an opportunity to study and compare the local and global history(Colla, 2013). In regards to these tales in the context of the Arabian Peninsula’s history, I will study the stories themselves. Analysis of these stories will pull from the concept of Archetypes (Campbell, 2008; Jung, De Laszlo, & Hull, 1990), and Philology (Dobie, 2008). The stories in the Arabian Nights have interesting histories in themselves. I will track the evolution of these stories from oral traditions to their eventual translation and distribution across the world. Studying the Nights in a global context will require knowledge about translation (Dobie, 2008) and mass communication …show more content…
Each discipline offers a new lens through which to study the stories in The Arabian Nights. History the predominant discipline that I will utilize for this question. History is essential to answering this question because it is where the vast majority of information necessary for analysis and contextualization of stories will come from. An understanding of the historic framework that stories reside in is what will allow for accurate and insightful analysis. For example, understanding the historical use of certain words through linguistics can reveal a new meaning to a story. In the case of the Arabian Nights, due to its translation, certain meanings have been neglected (Colla, 2013). In addition to the linguistics, understanding the religious context of the Arabian Nights will support analysis of the text in both Arabic and global frameworks (al-Musawi, 2009; Colla, 2013; Makdisi & Nussbaum, 2008; Mernissi, 1991).
Sociology and anthropology similarly add to analysis of stories and the cultures that are told in them. Studying societies and the people in them will aid in gauging what analysis or translations could be more accurate. These disciplines will also give me the tools to understand the history of these stories in relation to the individuals reading or telling