Similarities between novels and films

the thousand and one nights – or, as i prefer to call them in the following for purely practical reasons: the arabian nights – as we perceive them three hundred years after antoine galland’s epochal french adaptation bear a distinct arabic imprint. meanwhile, the commonly accepted model for their textual history acknowledges various stages in the conceptualization and effective formation of both the collection’s characteristic frame story and the embedded repertoire. the vast majority of tales in the preserved manuscripts of the nights has been integrated into the collection during two periods of arabic influence, the so-called baghdad and cairo periods (gerhardt 1963: 115–374). these “arabic” stages are preceded by an iranian version, probably dating to pre-islamic times, which in its turn profits from both structural devices and narrative contents originating from indian tradition. considering the eminent position that iran and iranian culture hold in the early stages of the textual history of the arabian nights, surprisingly few details are known concerning the collection’s relation to and its actual position within the iranian cultural context. in the following, i will discuss links between the arabian nights and iranian culture on several levels. in surveying these links, i will treat five major areas: (1) the iranian prototype of the nights; (2) tales of alleged persian origin; (3) persian characters within the tales; (4)persian translations of the arabian nights; and (5) the position of the arabian nights in modern iran

cornelia

explanation:

we don't know all that much about cornelia aside from what granny tells us about her, along with what we can gather from her few lines of dialogue. it's hard to picture her, too, since we're not given any details about her mannerisms or what she looks like. she could be dressed like a circus clown, for all we know.

even though we wouldn't recognize cornelia if we ran into her on the street, we can't but feel a lot of sympathy for this character. first of all, she's super nice and granny pretty much treats her like dirt. she's constantly asking granny if she needs anything and granny usually responds by snapping at her. here's a typical exchange:

"i thought you might want something."

"i do. i want a lot of things. first off, go away and don't whisper." (14-15)