TheArabian Nights, Visual Culture, and Early German Cinema

Abstract

This paper focuses on two cultural developments in Germany and their intersection in the period from 1880 to 1935. One of these developments is the robust reception of the Arabian Nights in print. The other is the emergence of visual culture in the form of motion pictures. The paper shows how the literary reception of the Arabian Nights as a visual experience can help explain why filmmakers like Ernst Lubitsch (Sumurun, 1920), Fritz Lang (Der müde Tod, 1921), and Paul Leni (Das Wachsfigurenkabinett, 1924) adapted the content and narrative structure of the Arabian Nights in their cinematic work.