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The Teacher and the Taught: Structures and Meaning in the Arabian Nights and the Panchatantra
- Marvels & Tales
- Wayne State University Press
- Volume 18, Number 2, 2004
- pp. 272-285
- 10.1353/mat.2004.0047
- Article
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The Arabian Nights and the Panchatantra have both been studied from various perspectives. Both contain a large number of stories under one umbrella or frame-story, and the umbrella-story of each work has remained more stable through the ages than the set of stories contained within. This article is a comparative study of the two umbrella-stories, both of which have an identity independent of the stories they shelter. The comparative study proceeds from the observation that the structures of the two frame-stories are strikingly similar, though composed of completely different elements.