Adaptations of Feminism in Arabian Nights, Almyna, and Blue-Beard Dina Rabie College

It is believed that Arabian Nights, sometimes known as One Thousand and One Nights, began as an oral narrative, told in public forums both to entertain audiences and to teach them significant moral lessons. Since its conception, its stories have been passed from the ears to mouths of millions, but the novel truly gained popularity in the West after French oral scholar Antoine Galland published a comprehensive translation between 1704 and 1717. Thereafter, its frame tale, along with its protagonist, Shahrazad, was adapted by many renowned Western writers in the following years – among the most notable, English playwrights Delariviere Manley and George Colman. These authors manipulate Arabian Nights to bridge the gap between the romanticized East and the familiar West.Like any story, each adaptation of the frame tale absorbs and reflects the principles of the society in which it exists. In Almyna; or, the Arabian Vow (1706) and Blue-Beard; or, female curiosity!(1798), Manley and Colman (respectively) use adaptations of Shahrazad as both illustrative tools for social criticism and platforms for feminism at the start and end of the eighteenth century.

The frame tale in Arabian Nights follows the female protagonist, Shahrazad, and...