one thousand and one nights

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one thousand and one nights *

a ucla mfa thesis

Persia has long been an object of fascination but has also been often subjected to objectification.

To portray Persia with a fairy tale flair while remaining faithful to the original culture and art was a worthy challenge to take upon.

During my final year of grad school, I focused on the flavours I want to hone and captitalise upon what I perceive can be my strengths in the long run.

One Thousand and One Nights provides all the opportunities to explore what I am interested in:

a fairytale with a dark twist,

room for extensive historical research,

chances for sophisticated illustrations.

story overview

Scheherezade and King Shahryar
Tale of the Trader and the Jinn
Sinbad the Sailor
City of Brass
Ali Baba and the Forty Theives

firstly,

the tales in the story are:

because the stories told over a one thousand one nights are all scheherezade’s creations, I wanted to focus on how she sees the world in which she’s trapped in the palace waiting for the day to be executed by her husband and king and the world in which she escapes to.

I first started with identifying who scheherazade, our narrator is, and then moved on to define the key terms indicating the mood of Scheherezade’s fictional stories that I wanted the story .

selected keywords: creations, fading hope, escapism

While the original story is set during the Sasanian Empire of Persia, I am setting my version of One Thousand and One Nights during the times of the Safavid Empire. The Safavids are known for the Isfahan style that we commonly associate with Persia today.

historical setting:

Isfahan, Iran

It is also important to note that the Isfahan style was the last style to develop in Iran. Poetically, the fact that the Isfahan style is the last one parallels Scheherazade’s waning growth: flourishing on the outside but dying progress.