Narrative Techniques of the Framework Stories in the 1001 Nights - Essay Example

Narrative techniques of the framework stories in The 1001 Nights Customer’s Name Customer’s Grade Course Customer tutor’s Name 24th May, 2010 Introduction A narrative refers to any story created by in the form of poetry, writing, pictures, speech, a song, video and prose among others with an aim of vividly describing non fictional or even fictional events. It can also be said by one of the characters in the narrative who basically is the main character. Narratives differ from each other depending on the narrative mode used by the narrator or the writer. It should be noted that every culture values narrative since they are a very symbolic aspect of any culture. In some circumstances narratives are known to contain the answers of the origin of some things or even people in a certain community (Morini, 2009). Many cultures hold narrative very dear since they term them as their knowledge management tools. This is because they are known to generate ideas, cause change, and encourage collaborations as well as disseminate knowledge. Narrative is one of the key components of literature. Every narrative differs from the other one in terms of the narrative techniques and also characteristics of the framework of that narrative. Narrative techniques are also known as the literary techniques, devices or motif. They describe the structure of any given story. They also show the style the author has used to present his or her work. Fictional stories are described by the writer’s style, the plot, the characters, the theme and the setting. These narrative techniques show the different techniques employed by the writer or the narrator in presenting the narrative to the audiences or the readers (Morini, 2009). They actually describe, interpret, analyze and recognize the form in which the narrator or writer ideas are represented. They are so many in numbers. The stories of the 1001 nights for instance have a number of them. Narrative techniques and general characteristics of the framework stories in the 1001 Nights The 1001 night is actually a collection of tales which were written and then compiled in the language of Arabic. They were actually written in the golden age of the Islamic. In English the tales are also known as the Arabian nights. The collections date very many centuries ago and they were collected by a number of scholars, author and translators who lived in the northern part of Africa and also Middle East. However, these tales were written or rather created in the medieval era which is between the 9th and 14th century. The initial form of the frame story is a one factor that makes those tales very common, also the king Shahryar and the wife Scheherazade, as well as the use of the framing device. Some of these tales includes Ali Baba, Aladdin’s and seven voyages among others (Cris, 2006). The general frame of the story entails a king of the Persia with his very newly acquired bride. He basically discovered that his wife was very unfaithful and then went ahead and executed her. After that, he then declared that all the women are completely unfaithful. He actually refused to believe that no woman can ever be faithful. After that incident, he decides to marry a series of women who are virgins and then on the next morning he would execute the girl. It continued for a long time until there were no more virgins to marry. The daughter of the man was supposed to look for the virgins then offered herself as a bride for the king. This girl called Scheherazade, on the night of her wedding with the king started narrating a story to the king which does not end even by morning, therefore the king decides not to execute her. This is because; he really needed to get the ending of the story. Then the following night the girl, continued with the tale. Unfortunately, the girl comes up with such a great strategy of restarting a new tale as soon as the one she was narrating ends (Cris, 2006). This goes on for such a long time because the girl never ran short of tales. The king was very eager to hear the ending of these series of tales hence kept postponing the execution. This went on and on until the one hundred and one day later. The tales in the 1001 nights as well as the various tales within it has been found to utilize a number of narrative techniques and general characteristics of the framework in the stories all of which are used in an innovative manner in an effort of increasing the drama, different emotions as well as the suspense in the mind of the reader (Robert, 2005). The issues of frame story are employed in the tale of the 1001 nights. This is whereby the virgin bride he married by the name Scheherazade, narrates so many of her tales to the man he got married to for so many nights (king Shahryar). Many of her stories were also referred to as frame stories. This is whereby most of her stories act as the frame of the next story she would narrate. These stories are usually connected to one another. A good example in the tales of the 1001 nights is the two stories namely: tale of the landman sindbad and the tale of the seaman the sindbad. Another device used is the aspect of a story within another story. This is very well shown in the tales of the 1001 nights. This is an aspect of narrative that is very evident in the Indian and Persian traditions of story telling. The examples of such are in Sanskrit and panchatantra literature. The use of such in the tale of the 1001 nights is actually an improvement of that. This is whereby the previous story is actually revisited in the next story due to an unanswered question that was raised (Robert, 2005). So the issue of the story within a story comes up in that sense. The stories in the tales of the 1001 nights has unknown narrator. Also, the aspect of a story in another story is revealed in the story of the Sinbad who was the sailor whereby the narrator raises the story of the seven journeys. In some of the tales, up to three other tales are raised within the tale. The tale of the Sinbad is not the only one with such a device. In actual sense, the narrator has utilized that device or technique in a great manner. Another, technique used in those tales is the device known as dramatic visualization. This is a technique whereby the character or even an object in the story is represented or even described in such a vivid way so that it creates a very great picture in the mind of the reader. This is achieved by the use of some detailed descriptions mimicking gestures (Robert, 2005). A very good example of the use of this device in the 1001 nights is in the tale known as three apples. This is whereby the great picture of a crime commission is created by the vivid description used. Another narrative device used in the tales of the 1001 nights is the one known as destiny and fate. This is whereby in every tale the narrator starts with some signs of destiny manifestation. The aspect is clearly shown in the anomaly whereby one anomaly leads to the evolvement of the other one leading to the creation of a chain of such. Such a device add flavor to the tale since keeps the listener or the reader interested and very focused to get to hear or even read the story up to the end. In some circumstances the story may end without any signs of the so called destiny, which gives the reader even a more desire to get to read about the next one. Foreshadowing is another device used; whereby a certain character is really repeated in an aim of referencing. This makes a character or even an object that was appearing to be very insignificant to appear very significant. A very good example is the tale of three apples. Also, this technique is very well represented in a way called formal patterning, whereby the narrator or the writer arranges the events in the narrative in such a way that there is a sequential way in which the story unfolds itself. By doing this, the reader or listener is then given an opportunity to anticipate or even discern the events before they even unfold. Foreshadowing has also been represented in that tale in the form of prophetic self- fulfilling (Cris, 2006). This is whereby a number of the technique hinds from the reader what is going to happen. For example in the story, a certain poor man becomes very rich again. The man gets instructions in his dreams about a journey he is to take to get him to the hidden treasures and when he does it he ends up in prison. While in the cells, he gets to talk to the guard who also shares his dream about a hidden treasure. On leaving the prison, man goes and digs it up. Then apparently he gets the treasure and he becomes very rich. Repetition is another is another narrative technique that has been used in the tales of 1001 nights. This refers to the aspect of repeating words more than once in the narrative. The narrator uses the technique with an aim of creating a connection between the characters in the tales. For example, the story of the Cinderella theme of the young girl being jealously harassed by the elder siblings has been used in so many tales including this one. This theme appears in the tale known as Judar and the brother. However, the story takes another turn since it uses the elder brothers who actually poison the younger one. Also, the story somehow does not have a very happy ending like in the Cinderella. Parody and satire are the other very evident devices that have been used. These have been represented in the form of sexual humor. For example, the tale of the Ali where by he is represented as somebody greatly possessed with the size of a human penis. The use of repletion has created a lot of humor in the tale of the 1001 nights (Robert, 2005). This is whereby the girl, who is narrating to the king, repeats a story she already told the king but then makes the version more humorous. This is shown in the following tales “the butcher wardan adventure with the bear and the woman” a tale that repeated in the tale known as “the ape and the king’s daughter.” the theme in the two tales is the same but there is a lot of humor in one of them. Somehow, the narrator wants to end the boredom in the readers and the listener. The use of the unreliable narrator is another technique. It is used in the tales like ‘seven viziers’. Whereby, the Cartesian, is on the kings son alleging that he was assaulting her but the truth is that she was not in a position to seduce him. The guy, in an effort to save his life, starts to narrate some other stories whereby he is trying to show how unreliable women are. However, the woman responds with her own story to also show how the men can not be lied on. This device is used so as to come up with suspense and also increase the humor (Morini, 2009). The elements of crime fiction are also used in the tale as a technique by the narrator. For example, the tale called ‘young woman murdered’ this is whereby there is a murder of which no one knows the one who committed it. The king orders someone to look for the murder within three days or else he will be executed himself. After three days the man returns without the murder. In the event of trying to execute the worker, there appear two men claiming to have murdered the person. One is old while the other one very young. After a short argument the younger one proves to be the murderer. Then it is discovered that the dead woman is the wife to the young man and the old one the father (Cris, 2006). The father is just lying to rescue the son in law. When there are demands to know why he murdered, he actually flushes back and tells some stories. Such fictional stories are a technique in a crime. The use of horror fiction is another technique; in the tales of the 1001 nights, the story ‘misery of Stephen kings’, whereby someone is actually forced to write a novel to the one holding him captive so as not to be killed (Robert, 2005) . Also, the use of the scientific fiction like the way in the ‘adventures of man called the Bulukia’ where this man ends up visiting so many places due his craving of the herbs. He really explores so many places both the land and the sea. On the process he ended up making so many other discoveries not only of the plants but also of the animals. Conclusion The 1001 night being a collection of tales which were written and then compiled in the language of Arabic, has really made use of narrative techniques as described above despite the fact that they were collected by a number of scholars, author and translators who lived in the northern part of Africa and also Middle East (Robert, 2005). The initial form of the frame story is a one factor that makes those tales very common, also the king Shahryar and the wife Scheherazade, as well as the use of the framing device. Some of these tales includes Ali Baba, Aladdin’s and seven voyages among others. These devices have been used to add flavor to the tale for example the satire, humor, suspense as well as to attract the attention of the listener or the reader (Morini, 2009) References Cris, D. (2006). 1001 nights: Exotica 1. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons Morini, M. (2009). Jane Austen’s narrative techniques: A stylistic and pragmatic analysis. New York: Free Press Robert, K. (2005). 1001 nights: Illustrated fairly tales from one thousand and one nights. Washington: Gallup Press. Read More