The Thousand and One Nights and Viṣṇuśarman’s Pañcatantra Reflection Short Essays

• any direct
  quotes should not be more than about a fourth of
  your total words.

Use MLA format parenthetical citations
for direct quotes and paraphrases.

• Include author/editor
  name(s) (when applicable) or a shortened title of the source and page
  number (when applicable) in the parenthetical citation.
• Provide full MLA
  format source information about the source on a Works Cited page
• though you are
  numbering prompts and responding to them instead of writing a paper, you
  still need to indicate what sources you used
• For our purposes, if
  your source is the textbook, instead of putting the information into MLA
  format, you can simply write “textbook” then give the volume
  and page number(s).
• For all other
  sources, including videos in the module, provide the 
• source information
  in MLA format.
• Here is a refresher
  on MLA if you need it: MLA
  Works Cited

Here are the prompts:

1. What qualities make Shahrazad a heroine? Paraphrase specific passages 

to support your answers.

2. In the Themes of Arabian Nights lecture
from Duke University, Prof. Jawad cites “The Merchant and the Demon”
story as representative of different 

religions not only coexisting but even
working together for a noble purpose. 

Explain how this message can be derived
from this story. It is important to 

know that after page 615 (where you could
stop reading), the three old men (each of whom can be interpreted to represent
a different religion) offered 

to tell the demon a story in exchange for one
third of the merchant’s life. These stories enthralled the demon, and once he
had granted each old man 

one third of the merchant’s life, the merchant was
saved. Finally, how can 

studying world literature achieve a similar result of
helping religions and 

cultures coexist and even work together? Paraphrase
specific passages to 

support your answers.

3. Describe the culture in India’s Classical Age and discuss the
relationship 

between this culture and the following: geography, trade, and
rising and 

falling empires. Focus particularly on the Gupta Empire. The
introductory 

material from the textbook and the History
Summarized: Classical India

video will be particularly helpful
for this question. Paraphrase specific 

passages from the video and your
textbook to support your answers.

4. Choose one of the following (you may want to go back over the schools
of criticism from module 1):

a.  Apply a Feminist Criticism literary theory lens to
the The Thousand and 

One Nights. In what ways do specific elements
of the stories resist and/or 

reinforce patriarchal ideas? Paraphrase specific
passages to support your answers.

b. Apply a New Historicism literary theory lens to the The
Thousand and One Nights. How do the stories criticize the leading political
figures or movements? What language/characters/events present in the work
reflect the current events of the authors’ days (as the stories were collected
over time, you may focus on just one time period)? Are there words in the text
that have changed their meaning from the time of the writing? How does the text
function as 

part of a continuum with other historical/cultural texts from the
same 

period? Paraphrase specific passages to support your answers.

c. Apply a Marxist Criticism literary theory lens to the Blue Jackal.
In what 

ways can specific elements of the stories symbolize the relationship 

between the higher classes/elites and the lower classes/laborers? Answer 

both
in terms of an original audience and a modern audience (you can consider a
modern audience in India and/or the United States). Paraphrase 

specific
passages to support your answers.