Aladdin Almighty: Middle Eastern Magic in the Service of Western Consumer Culture

The tale of "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp" is internationally the most popular fairy tale of Middle Eastern origin. Dominated today by the overwhelming impact of the Disney animated feature film (1992) and its theatrical adaptations, the tale's appropriation by the Western audience dates back some three centuries. In Western consumer culture, the complex tale has boiled down to the promise of magic solutions to all kinds of daily challenges, epitomized in the icon of the wish-fulfilling lamp. The present contribution studies this feature through a detailed assessment of Aladdin's (or his lamp's) appearance on the internet.