Arabic Narrative in American Voices: Edgar Allan Poe and John Barth

Abstract In this paper, I set out to demonstrate how Poe and Barth understand Arabic narrative showcased in The Arabian Nights , and why they show so much approximation, deviation, and swerve. In their misreading, both Poe and Barth reveal much about the mechanism of the incorporation of Arabic narrative as much as they convey their own cultural and literary concerns. Premised on postcolonial and postmodern theory, I show how the American Orientalism of Poe and Barth perpetrates a misrepresentation of both Arabic narrative, Muslims, and the East. While Foucault’s ‘conditions of possibility’ pertain to a cultural context that is bound to inform writing, there is also the predilection of both writers to maraud Alf Laylah wa-Laylah as their free zone, a colony of a sort.