Zeynep and I’s reading was a little bit interesting. It drifted away from the intense literary driven texts we have been working on these past few weeks. In our discussion, we will be addressing the main themes of the reading for example, adultery , violence, gender disparities, misogyny, etc. Another interesting point we wanted to share with the class is Shahzamans’ immediate change in state of mind when he catches his brother’s wife having a great time with a guy from a tree. What is it about human nature that explains how the younger brother felt? As adultery represents one of the biggest theme in The thousand and One Night we thought it would be important to analyze how infidelity was dealt in the past compared to present day.
Throughout the story, women are not seeing in a positive light; from the first wife being disloyal, to the demon’s significant other sleeping with more than 90 men during her marriage. All of a sudden, we are presented to the Vizier’s daughter. “Would you sacrifice or risk your life if you were in Shahrazad’s shoes?”, “How are these women portrayed in the anecdotes and the story as a whole (Unfaithful wives, woman turned into a cow, belittled, etc.”).
To finish off the discussion, “What do all these stories have in common?”. One Thousand and One Nights is full of stories about the power of storytelling!
2 responses so far ↓
Tanzil Uddin // Oct 15th 2014 at 8:37 am
Hi guys, that was a great discussion yesterday! Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this was one of the very few times we’ve had a discussion where two people led simultaneously? Nevertheless, I liked the teamwork and the way you two collaborated smoothly. Great points and examples. 🙂
lb153586 // Oct 15th 2014 at 1:04 pm
I really enjoyed your presentation and how you pointed out many of the main themes that are woven into The Thousand and One Nights. Your discussion questions also made me think about the psychological process someone might go through if they were cheated on. When you talked about how Shahzaman’s outlook on life changed after he finds out that his brother’s wife is in fact cheating on him as well, it opened up a new window for me. When I originally read the text, I just skipped over the thought about how happy he was, but you guys made me think, “Is this a normal reaction?” Very nice presentation.