《一千零一夜》有「民間文學史上最宏偉的方尖碑」美稱,被視為阿拉伯、波斯、印度一帶民間文學之集大成,卻少有人知道其經歷西方近代作家的改編與傳播,尚帶有東方主義的色彩。她的文體、敘事結構與風格來自印度;故事背景、角色與寓意來自波斯—阿拉伯;受眾則來自歐美,以致於在文藝復興時期的歐洲文學作品中都可見其影響。 20世紀初,阿爾奈、湯普森等民俗故事學者相繼提出故事類型、情節單元等概念,作為分析、解構民間故事一致性的元素標準,並製成「阿爾奈─湯普森故事類型索引」與「湯普森民間故事情節單元索引」。在來自世界各地的龐大數據庫中,代表亞、歐、非交界地區的《一千零一夜》也榜上有名。 本研究使用故事分析方法,以李唯中翻譯自布拉克善本的《一千零一夜分夜本》為依據,列舉、分析其中的「類型」與「情節單元」;最後將兩者對應,得出《一千零一夜》的兩大地方特色,即「善惡對立的辯論型敘事結構」與「界線分明的性別空間」。
"The Arabian Nights" is known as "the most magnificent obelisk in the history of folk literature". She is regarded as a masterpiece of folk literature in Arabia, Persia and India. But few people know that it has undergone the adaptation and dissemination of modern Western writers, and therefore has the color of Orientalism. Her narrative structure and style come from India; her story background and characters come from Persia-Arab; her audience comes from Europe and America. Her influence can be seen in European literary works during the Renaissance. At the beginning of the 20th century, Aarne and Thompson successively proposed concepts "type" and "motif" as the elemental standards for analyzing the consistency of folk stories, and made "Aarne-Thompson classification system" and "Motif-Index of Folk-Literature." In the huge database from all over the world, "The Arabian Nights", which represents the border areas of Asia, Europe and Africa, is also on the list. This study through the story analysis method, based on Li Weizhong's " The Arabian Nights " translated from Braque's version, enumerating the characteristics of its story types and motifts. finally, the two correspond to each other and draw the two features of " The Arabian Nights " ─ the debate between good and evil, and the boundary of gender space.