Hamlet and Arabic Literary Networks

Abstract

This chapter examines the intercultural resonance between William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Arabic literature and thus with Malay literature. Hamlet is memorable for its graveyard scene which features skulls as stage properties and is linked to the tradition of European memento mori in the visual arts. The play has surprising intercultural resonances with the Arabic cosmopolis of the East Indies in the age of European exploration, and therefore necessitates a reconfiguration of early modern global literary networks. This chapter considers the graveyard scene’s allusion to Alexander the Great and how the anecdote of Alexander and the skulls traveled to England in the form of Naṣīḥat al-mulūk. It suggests that Hamlet’s literary exemplars may derive from an overlooked narrative tradition of young men discoursing on skulls from Arabic mirrors. It also argues for a spatial and temporal realignment of Hamlet as part of global Arabic literary networks.