Intertextuality of selected Arabic and Western literary works

Abstract

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the literary-cultural impact of Arabic literature on Western literature. This research focuses on three literary comparisons taken from works that belong to Arabic and Western literature by means of a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the target textual data.   The study chooses to address the following items: the Spanish play by Lope de Vega (1562-1635), La Doncella Teodor which has a similar Arabic version among the Arab tales of the Arabian Nights, the literary influence of the story of Zarqa al-Yamamah on Shakespeare’s play Macbeth and the literary mirroring of the Arabic story of Solomon and the Angel of Death onto Marquez’s novel Flee to Samarra by unveiling the aspects of the literary impact of each Arabic literary item. The study illustrates elements of intertextuality and functionality that close the gap between text and culture on each spectrum as well as between the Occident and the Orient by looking at the degree of similarity between these stories.  This study contributes to offering insights into the literary intertextuality between Arabic literature and Western literature (Spanish and English) while also sheds light on the cross-cultural perceptions between the two forms of literature by examining the textual, cultural  and psychological aspects of each extract compared with each other.