The Tale of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse (ATU 112): Pre-Modern Arabic Versions and Its Development in the Arabic Oral Tradition of Algeria and Morocco
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17561/blo.vextra8.9596Keywords:
ATU 112, town mouse, country mouse, folktale, Arabic Literature, Algeria, MoroccoAbstract
The aim of this article is to present and analyse in a comparative way some Arabic versions of the international type tale ATU 112 («Country Mouse Visits Town Mouse»), both in literature and in oral tradition, from the western Mediterranean region. After going back to the earliest examples of the tale in Arabic literature, we will trace its possible vestiges in al-Andalus. On the other shore and in more recent times, we will look at several versions in the modern oral traditions of Morocco and Algeria, with some references to Tunisia. All of them will be analysed by applying a comparative methodology in order to establish their possible affiliations and to study the evolution of this classical fable in its circulation since the Middle Ages in this area of the western Mediterranean. As an introduction, we have included some brief notes on the representation of the mouse -the main animal of the tale- in Adab prose and pre-modern Arabic paremiology.
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