“I Am Not Good at Any of This.” Playing with Homoeroticism in The Arabian Nights

The story collection known in the West as Arabian Nights or One Thousand and Nights, is famous, among other things, for its erotic playfulness. This eroticism was (and is) one of key reasons continuous popularity after Antoine Galland’s French translation 1704. includes, besides traditional, heterosexual acts, play, desires, examples homoerotic playfulness—even though we must tread lightly when using such Western concepts with an oriental text body this one. playfulness subject article. By making use a text-immanent analysis two Nights’ stories—of Qamar Budûr Alî Shâr Zumurrud—the author article focuses on reversal common gender roles, acts cross-dressing, and, course, play. He will argue that these stories provide narrative safe environment which reader encouraged to “experiment” non-normative sexual orientations, leaving dominant status quo effectively ultimately unchallenged, thus preventing (self-proclaimed) defenders from feeling threatened enough actively counter-act experiment.