How Does The Literature Of This Country Communicate Its Values?

 

 

Iraq

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Language

 

 

 

 

80 percent of Iraq is Arab. The term "Arab" is actually a linguistic category, like "Romance" or "Latin". The 2000 spoken dialects of Arabic are quite diverse and until recently not always mutually comprehensible. The adoption of a Modern Standard Arabic for the purposes of writing and public discourse has allowed direct communication throughout the region; it is as though all the Romance countries got together and adopted a modernized form of Latin as their written language,

but spoke Spanish or Italian or Romanian at home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Literature

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Arabian Nights 

 

 (A Thousand Nights and a Night)

 

 

 

 

• The Story

 

 

http://www.arabiannights.org/index2.html

• The Study Guide

http://novaonline.nv.cc.va.us/eli/eng251/arabstudy.htm

• Reflections Questions

1. Several stories in the Nights give examples of why it is better to be just than to be unjust. Find three examples and explain what is the nature of justice in the Nights as you understand it. For each example find the reasons for choosing justice.

    
    
    
2. There are fascinating parallels between the story of Sharazad and the story of the Biblical Esther.

    
   Full story of Esther from the Old Testament
   Esther.
    
   Summary of the story from the Old Testament
   http://jewishappleseed.org/apple/esther.htm

    

   Both are clever, beautiful women who live in the courts of powerful rulers and must use their wits to save the lives of others. Do a careful, detailed compare/contrast of these two heroines, using three specific details from both stories to support your ideas.
    
    
    
3. Explore the role of women in the Nights. Look closely at the character and role of Shahrazad in the main story frame. She is a hero, because she saves her own life and the life of many of her people, yet she lives in a culture where she is in danger just because she is a woman. Compare/contrast her to a female character in a story you have read earlier this year. Be sure to use three specific detailed examples from both texts to support your ideas.