I Sjeherazades öga: En postkolonial studie av blick och narrativ i illustrationerna i Tusen och en natt 1958-63

Sammanfattning: This study examines the relationship between textual and visual narratives as well as the gaze upon the Orient as Other by analysing a Swedish, illustrated edition of the Arabian Nights from 1958-63. This research draws upon a multitude of theoretical perspectives on the gaze from the field of visual culture, combined with Edward Said’s critical notion of orientalism. The material is studied in three case studies, comparing the relationship between text and images in each case using Roland Barthes’ structural analysis of narratives and Mieke Bal’s reading of visual narratives through focalization. The result shows a variation concerning the relationship between the text and images, which is made visible by discussing the narrative structure organized by the gaze. The gaze is found to be voyeuristic and monitoring in the first two illustrations, whereas in the last case the gaze may be constituted as a mutual dialogue between the viewer and the represented Other, given that the viewer is able to accept this viewing position.