1. Collection
In Dante’s Inferno, Dante narrates his own journey using the stories of these damned souls. In a Thousand and One Nights, Shahrazad tells a collection of stories to guide her through the nights with the king. What effect does the storyteller’s relation to the tales play a part in the collective effect of the whole? What complications do these different story telling methods bring?
2. Lost in Translation
Texts have been translated and/or altered so that members of other communities can read and listen to the tales. Does the effect of translation have a different impact depending on the length of the text (Wang Wei’s short poem vs the lengthy a Thousand and One Nights)? What contributing factors can be a reason for these texts to be “lost in translation,” meaning that there are notable differences in the original and translated versions?
