Recognition in the Arabic Narrative Tradition

Offers new vistas for reading, understanding and interpreting Arabic literature as well as the culture in which it was produced.

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According to Aristotle, a well-crafted recognition scene is one of the basic constituents of a successful narrative. It is the point when hidden facts and identities come to light—in the classic instance, a son discovers in horror that his wife is his mother and his children are his siblings. Aristotle coined the term `anagnôrisis’ for the concept. In this book Philip F. Kennedy shows how 'recognition' is key to an understanding of how one reads values and meaning into, or out of, a story. He analyses texts and motifs fundamental to the Arabic literary tradition in five case studies: the Qur’an; the biography of Muhammad; Joseph in classical and medieval re-tellings; the `deliverance from adversity’ genre and picaresque narratives.