Sunday, January 24, 2010

List of Allusions in "Haroun and the Sea of Stories"

It seems very fitting to me that a story about the Ocean of Stories would contain many literary allusions. However, for the supposed "low-brow" nature of this book I was really surprised on how saturated it is with allusions, and, I was even more surprised how many I missed the first time around! Here is a list of some of the allusions and their pagination that I found throughout the book! Notice that some appear very frequently... :)

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov-- Epigraph poem.
Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge-- Epigraph poem, pg. 88
Prisoner of Zenda-- Epigraph poem
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by STC-- "Water, water everywhere; nor any trace of land" I can't find the page.
A Thousand and One Nights-- Frequently throughout the book...
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll-- Frequently...
Dr. Seuss (use of language)-- pg. 164
Matthew 21:21-- pg. 172
Joshua 6: 20-- pg. 189
Samuel Beckett (as told in class)-- pg. 125
Jason and the Golden Fleece-- pg. 99
Romeo & Juliet by Shakespeare-- pg. 99
Sinbad the Sailor-- pg. 99
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves-- pg. 99
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp-- pg. 99
Bluebeard-- Iff's blue beard and outfit.
Franz Kafka-- pg. 129 (mutterings of shadow warrior). These may be a stretch but they seem to coincidental to be a mere chance occurrence.
Nikolai Gogol-- pg. 129 (mutterings of shadow warrior) These may be a stretch but they seem to coincidental to be a mere chance occurrence.
"I am the Walrus" The Beatles-- The eggheads and the Walrus... also probably inspired by Alice in Wonderland. John Lennon was a big fan of Lewis Carroll.

*Undoubtedly there are many more allusions in this wonderful book that I've missed or forgot to include. I would love for others to find allusions and post them in the comments page! We could work up an annotated Haroun pretty fast!*






2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the list of allusions. Have just begun to read the book.

    Sayantika

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness"

    ReplyDelete