When the East Meets the West: Literary Interference and Cultural Transfer

Abstract

Our contribution focuses on literary interference and cultural transfer the processes and contributions of dialogue in the field of literature between the Arab-Muslim world and Europe and, more recently, from the Middle Ages, between the Arab World and the West. We show how these cultural universes have mutually fertilized over the centuries. We start by defining the theoretical framework in which the main questions raised by these exchanges are registered and what they teach us about the links between the cultures that produced the works concerned, and continue with the importance of literary borrowings seen as cultural exchange currencies. As an outstanding example we have chosen Kalila wa-Dimna and the Arabian Nights to demonstrate the circulation of classical literary sources in the Arabic language, and bring arguments in favor of the benefic encounter of Western literatures with the Arab world.

Keywords

• arab
• cultural exchange
• divine comedy
• literary interferences
• kalîla wa-dimna
• one thousand and one nights
• translation