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Methodology

Into the Abyss: Frames in 1001 Nights and the Decameron Alice Maglio

Comparative Literature

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We can view the relationship between the written works and Pasolini's films as an intratextual mise en abyme. Pasolini latches onto various aspects of the Nights and Decameron, such as a spirit of amazement, proliferation of framing, use of mise en abyme, and meditation on art. The director then reflects these elements through his own frames back onto the original work, creating a dialogue between the two. The Nights and Decameron can now look into Pasolini's mirror and see aspects of themselves reflected, distorted, multiplied or completely effaced. Through this mise en abyme, Pasolini's film transgresses boundaries of time, genre, and medium. Does the reflection now apply both ways? Does, for example, the Nights now reflect Il fiore, just as Il fiore reflects it?

Frames

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Primary Texts

Abstract

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Conclusions Almansi, Guido. The Writer as Liar. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975. Cerisola, Luigi. "La questione della cornice del "Decameron"" Aevum 49 (1975): 137-56. JSTOR. Web. 15 Sept. 2012. Chatman, Seymour. Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1978. Dällenbach, Lucien. The Mirror in the Text. Trans. Jeremy Whitely. Chicago: U Chicago Press, 1989. Derrida, Jacques. "The Parergon." Trans. Craig Owens. October 9 (1979): 3-41. JSTOR. Web. 12 Feb. 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/778319> Fido, Franco. "L'Ars Narrandi di Boccaccio nella Sesta Giornata." Il Regime delle simmetrie imperfette. Studi sul "Decameron" Milano: Franco Angeli, 1988. Fajardo, Salvador J. "The Frame as Formal Contrast: Boccaccio and Cervantes." Comparative Literature 36.1 (1984): 1-19. JSTOR. Frow, John. "The Literary Frame." Journal of Aesthetic Education 16.2 (1982): 25-30. JSTOR. Web. 6 Feb. 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3332274>. Frye, Northrop. "Historical Criticism: Theory of Modes." Anatomy of Criticism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990, 33-67. Genette, Gérard. Narrative Discourse Revisited. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1988. Ghazoul, Ferial J. Nocturnal Poetics: The Arabian Nights in Comparative Context. Cairo: American University in Cairo, 1996. Hillis Miller, J. "Narrative." Critical Terms for Literary Study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1990. 66-79 Il Decameron. Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini. United Artists, 1971. Il fiore delle Mille e una notte. Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini. United Artists, 1974. Mahdi, Muhsin. Alf Layla Wa Layla. Leiden: EJ Brill, 1994. Mahdi, Muhsin. "Exemplary Tales in The Nights." Alf Layla Wa Layla. Leiden: EJ Brill, 1994. 140-63. Naddaf, Sandra. "Magic Words Metaphoric Initiation." Arabesque: Narrative Structure and the Pasolini, Pier Paolo. Empirismo Eretico. Milano: Garzanti, 1972. Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. Narrative Fiction. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2002. Todorov, Tzvetan, and Arnold Weinstein. "Structural Analysis of Narrative." NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 1st ser. 3 (1969): 70-76. Todorov, Tzvetan. "Narrative Men." The Poetics of Prose. Trans. Richard Howard. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1987. 66-79 Turner, Mark. "Bedtime with Shahrazad." The Literary Mind. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. 3-11.

The question of the frame has often proved significant in studies of 1001 Nights and Il Decameron, as many critics throw them together into the genre of "frame narrative." Within these two works, there undeniably is framing, but it is not the mere presence of the many frames that truly defines these texts. Rather, what significantly informs and unites these works is the way in which the authors use the devices of mise en abyme and focalization to create larger discourses that are not limited by the frame, but instead play with the frames' insides and outsides to gain momentum. In its very essence, mise en abyme is a device that challenges and transgresses the frame as a limit. It problematizes the fixed position of an image, theme, or character within one embedded position, and allows for a relationship of reflection that reaches across many frames. So, too, do layers of focalization play with the "boundaries" of the frame and use them as stepping stones to create larger discourses that inform the entire work or specific story cycle. Pier Paolo Pasolini exemplifies this transgression of the frame through his film translations, as he consistently challenges its limits, confusing inside with outside, art with reality, and dream with waking life.

Kitab Alf Layla wa Layla (Book of the 1001 Nights): ed. Muhsin Mahdi •  "Hikayat al-Ahdab Sahib Malik al-Sin" (The Story of the Hunchback, Friend of the King of China) Il Decameron: Giovanni Boccaccio • "Terza Giornata" (Third Day) • "Sesta Giornata" (Sixth Day) Il fiore delle Mille e una notte (The Flower of the 1001 Nights): Pier Paolo Pasolini Il Decameron :Pier Paolo Pasolini

• Use narratological concepts to break down the Nights and Decameron • Use Jacques Derrida’s concept of the parergon as a basis for analysis of the transgression of the frame through mise en abyme and focalization • Use Pasolini’s film translations to gain a better understanding of frame transgression in these works