Sites of Dialogue, Sites of Struggle for Power in Hanan Al-Shaykh’s <i>One Thousand and One Nights</i>

Abstract The stories of The Arabian Nights have been revised multiple times throughout history, including the most popular translations, by Edward Lane (1859), Sir Richard Francis Burton (1885–1886), and Joseph-Charles Mardus (1898). Some critics consider Shahrazad as a slave, whereas others view her as a feminist. Numerous scholars argue that many of these translations display Orientalist stereotyping of Arab women and men. This study analyzes Hanan Al-Shaykh’s (2011) revision of The Arabian Nights, investigating the multiple voices presented in the text. Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism is drawn upon to read Al-Shaykh’s revision as a polyphonic novel with multiple embedded voices, such as the colonial, patriarchal, écriture féminine, and feminist. This revision highlights the dialogue between “authoritative” and “internally persuasive” discourses. Intersecting Dale Bauer’s theory of feminist dialogics with other theories such as Orientalism, écriture féminine, and carnivalesque, this study contends that a feminist persuasive narrative dominates and challenges the patriarchal masculine narrative. It also argues that the novel is disruptive in decolonizing previous Orientalist narratives, investing in feminine writing, masquerades, and reclaiming the art of storytelling.