Hollywood Adaptation of Thousand and One Nights: A Critical Analysis based on Hutcheon’s (2006) Theory

• Main Author: Roohollah Roozbeh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lasting Impressions Press 2017-06-01
• Series: International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies
• Subjects: Hollywood; Adaptation; Thousand And One Nights; Ideology; Critique
• Online Access: http://www.eltsjournal.org/archive/value5%20issue2/4-5-2-17.pdf

Hollywood has been fascinated with the Thousand and One Nights. It has adapted it from the very outset of Cinema itself. Based on Linda Hutcheon’s (2006) A Theory of Adaptation, this paper tries to examine Rawlins’ Arabian Nights (1942) to see how Hollywood adapts from this Oriental work. Hutcheon argues that adapters adapt differently; some adapt to pay tribute and homage to the author, some adapt because they want to make money; some adapt to gain cultural authority and canonicity; others adapt to critique and subvert the ideology of the text. In this paper we will argue that Hollywood occupies the fourth category in adapting Thousand and One Nights in Arabian Nights directed by Rawlins, that is to say Hollywood seeks to subvert the ideology of the text and critique what it stands for and what the text stands for is the East and mostly Arabic culture. To do that, Hollywood does not indigenize the culture of the East and critiques the culture of the Arabs through the tropes of belly-dance, veil, and harem. The methodology of this article is wholly based on Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism in his book Orientalism.