- French Variations on the Thousand and One Nights: Which Versions for Which Effects?ed. by Aboubakr Chraïbi and Ilaria Vitali
As the editors Aboubakr Chraïbi and Ilaria Vitali explain in their introductory essay, this special issue of Francofoniacommemorates the tricentenary of Antoine Galland's death in 1715. Emerging from a conference at the University of Bologna (September 2014), co-organized by the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco), the essays focus on the monumental impact of The Nightswithin the French literary and cultural fields from the eighteenth century to the present. This impact is due to Galland's translation and publication of a Syrian manuscript of The Nights(1704–17), which became eminently popular throughout Europe, giving way to innumerable adaptations and imitations. The Nights' popularity was then renewed in fin-de-siècle France with Joseph-Charles Mardrus's translation/adaptation (1898–1904). Moving from The Nights' influence on various literary trends to its impact on dance and visual arts, the volume presents the reader with a wide scope through which to appreciate the ways The Nightsindeed form an integral part of French culture.
The first set of essays examines the immediate repercussions of the introduction of The Nightsinto the French literary field. Abdelfattah Kilito connects The Nightsto Denis Diderot's Jacques le Fataliste(Jacques the Fatalist, 1796), in particular with respect to the ways in which both texts involve "fourvoiements," or detours, distractions, and taking the wrong path, within the context of a "road novel" (16). Jean-Paul Sermain focuses on how Galland adapted The Nightsto the norms of eighteenth-century sociability and civility through the use of a vocabulary embedded in Parisian culture of the period. Both Richard van Leeuwen and Raymonde Robert explore the relation between The Nights [End Page 463]and the fantastic, a subject that merits further exploration. Through the examination of works by Jean-Paul Bignon and Jacques Cazotte, Van Leeuwen foregrounds the ways in which The Nightsserved as a site to "experiment with religious and philosophical ideas" through the questioning and relativizing Western religious practices (53). Like Van Leeuwen, Robert foregrounds the demonological tradition implicit in works inspired by The Nightsand carries out a comparative analysis of William Beckford's Vathek(1786) and Cazotte's Diable amoureux(The Devil in Love, 1772) and Maugraby(Magician, 1789). The last essay treating the period of the Enlightenment by Svetlana Panyuta demonstrates the ways in which the Abbé Voisenon blends French traditions of the fairy marvelous with the oriental tradition.
With respect to the nineteenth century, Dominique Jullien explores the influence of The Nightson Honoré de Balzac's creation of the character Vautrin in his Comédie Humaine(Human Comedy). The issue then jumps to the end of the century with a study of the fascinating publication history of Joseph-Charles Mardrus's version of The Nightsand its impact on the cultural field. Evanghélia Stead embeds Mardrus's translation/adaptation within the fin-desiècle literary avant-garde through a study of the dedications to André Gide, Paul Valéry, and Stéphane Mallarmé, among others. For her part, Ilaria Vitali makes a compelling argument that Mardrus's Nightsmay have shaped Serge Diaghilev and Michel Fokine's Ballets Russes. Both the text and the Ballets Russesemphasize the "erotic character" (134) of The Nightsand include "orientalist amplifications" (137). The century wraps up with Marie Mossé's analysis of Pierre Loti's deployment of The Nightsin his depictions of Turkey, particularly the figure of the melancholic sultan who inspires fear.
The next series of essays looks at twentieth- and twenty-first century French manifestations of The Nights, beginning with Anna Zoppellari's examination of Henri de Régnier's Le Veuvage de Schéhérazade(The Widowhood of Scheherazade, 1926), in which the heroine moves from being...