Abstract
Abstract Bilal Orfali and Enass Khansa have chosen twenty-one pieces from al-Tanūḫī’s Nišwār al-muḥāḍara and al-Faraǧ baʿd al-šidda as part of a new Library of Arabic Literature series for young readers, with pictures by Jana Traboulsi which are in marked contrast to Orientalist 1001 Nights illustrations. The editors’ aim is to recast the stories’ literary aesthetics visually and develop the readers’ imagination by inviting them to think about how the stories explore space and place rather than about plot and characterisation. To mark the fact that this is first time al-Tanūḫī has been illustrated, I compare the editors’ conceptual framing of their anthology, together with a selection of Traboulsi’s illustrations, with my own perception, as the anthology’s English translator, of visual and spatial focal points in the stories. I start by explaining my own point of critical reference, functional visualisation, through an analysis of a story not included in the anthology, and conclude with a brief discussion of factual cultural content in the stories.
Published Version
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