Insegnare la Letteratura araba: non solo Le Mille e una Notte

With the aim in mind of counteracting violence and the phenomenon of radicalization it is essential, at all levels of teaching, to impart a knowledge of different cultures. In this sense Arabic literature is a case in point, not only from a purely literary point of view but as regards cultural and social differences that help to amplify the aims of the study and go beyond the limits of national literatures and cultures and their ensuing ethnocentricity. By pursuing the idea of continuity between the classical epoch and the modern age, I have proposed a series of literary texts that can be inserted into the curriculum. I have given precedence to those Arabic texts that have contributed to the circulation of knowledge and an openness to both ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ culture. Starting from the qasida which began in the pre-Islamic era and continued to the present age, I have dealt with some types of Bacchic and love poetry that have analogies to courtly love. Another work, less well-known than A Thousand and One Nights but with many similarities to it, is Kalila was Dimna the stories of which circulated widely and reached the West. The maqamat are another very characteristic genre of Arabic literature: they are a series of picaresque tales that have enjoyed a huge success from the X century to the modern age. Finally, from the multiple possibilities available in the panorama of contemporary Arabic literature, I chose to concentrate on the writings of the Palestinian author Mahmud Darwish whose poetic mastery goes beyond the limits of national literature and make of him a writer with universal appeal.