The Concept of Movement in The Odyssey, The Arabian Nights, and The Songs of The Troubadours and The Trobairitz

Travel and migration can, in the most part, be viewed as voluntary. Exile is an action thatis involuntary, thus force is an aspect of exile. Travel and migration both include trade-offs.

Trade-offs are the beneficial and dangerous components of every decision. When the dangers ofa trade-off outweigh the benefits, the opportunity is no longer viable. All three concepts require movement. Movement is a basic action that separates living organisms from inanimate objects.

Movement is done by all organisms in a cellular (internal) or external way. Movement is essential for growth survival and development of individuals, countries and cultures. This may occur at a cellular level, at a grander level, or at an abstract level. Movement accomplishes the breaching of boundaries by being obtained socially, physically, emotionally, and metaphysically. The ancient and historical literary poems, epics, and passages such as The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson, The Arabian Nights, translated by Malcolm C. Lyons, and the Songs of The Troubadours and The Trobairitz, demonstrate this movement as well as correlate to transferences from ancient eras to the contemporary period. These literary works may be used to find mistakes, achievements and opportunities for people today to learn from and possibly replicate.

Boundaries that were constructed physically can be destroyed through physical means. Inthe same way, other boundaries can be breached by the method in which they were created. Asocial boundary had to be developed through a concept that was accepted and followed. The waysocial borders are crossed is by countering and confronting what is accepted, and by notfollowing the social structure. Feudalism is a social boundary that consists of a hierarchy withkings and nobles at the top and servants at the bottom. Feudalism is present in the Sinbad stories of The Arabian Nights. In The Arabian Nights the motive for destroying the boundary is social nonconformity. The people in the Sinbad stories are witness’ of change from lack of wealth toabundant wealth through a merchant. The vehicle for the destruction of this social boundary wasa merchant. Merchants did not conform to feudalism and gained wealth through travel. Socialnonconformity is a trending motive that has been preserved. The idea of social nonconformity inregards to wealth can be seen in the country of Venezuela. In 2017, Venezuela was in a wealthcrisis. Venezuelans have contributed to one of the most immense Latin American migrations. As the poverty in Venezuela continues to augment, so does the migration rate. Venezuelans have migrated across the Colombian, Panama, and United States boundaries. They have crossed these physical boundaries in order to overcome the social border from their homes.

The concept of the merchant is still woven into the present. The idea to crossing from home to an alternative territory drove the Venezuelans to other places, including the United States. TheUnited States has promoted an inflated merchant mentality to many immigrants like theVenezuelans. The idea of the poor become rich through travel is currently known as the“American Dream”. Just as in the Sindbad stories, this concept leads people to travel in search of change, success, and prosperity. The effect of resettlement into a different country, for the country is the creation of a new labor force and people obtaining positions they did not havebefore. Sindbad explains to the poor Sindbad that the poor have the opportunity to become rich at sea. In the U. S. , similarly the Venezuelans can find job opportunitiesthat were not available in Venezuela. By taking the job opportunities in the United States, the country’s labor force increases. This can be viewed as beneficial for the country especiallybecause the Latin American immigrants take the most undesired jobs. Undocumented immigrants overcome the boundary of no wealth from their home country to having a job that can provide them wealth in the United States. There is a new border created by this accomplishment. The immigrants fear deportation, thus they do not speak against unsanitary conditions in the workplace or of low wages. This once again creates a social boundary between citizens and non-citizens. This is opposed to what is depicted in the Odyssey by Odysseus. Odysseus does not feared to intrude on Polyphemus and force his cultural expectations of hospitality on him. Odysseus is a contrast to modern day Latin American immigrants because heis fearless and prideful. Odysseus escapes the border set by the cyclopes in a violent manner (by stabbing the one-eyed giant). Both the Venezuelan migration and the symbol of the merchant correlate to Syria in 2015. Over “one million Syrians, Afghans… and others fleeing war andpoverty” desperately migrated to Europe to breach the social-wealth border, that was a crisis.

Although, wealth was a prominent social divide during the Islamic Golden Age, genderwas a prominent divide during twelfth century Occitania. Occitania developed in a culturally permeable territory which attracted cultural diffusion. This included the diffusion of cultures, music, and poetry. Troubadours and Trobairitz were poets and musicians that originated from Occitania and developed secular music, rather than religious music. The social boundary was pronounced in the diffusion of thetroubadours to others territories. Trobairitz only emerged in Occitania. In other territories women did not perform or create music. Trobairitz were stationary while the men, due to their social status, had physical mobility. The social divide trapped the Trobairitz in a physical boundary.

The Trobairitz of Occitania did in fact cross the social-gender border by performing, but men ofall social orders were allowed to perform while only the women of the aristocratic order were4able to perform. Some borders take multiple generations to be destroyed. The accomplishment ofthe trobairitz was a contribution to the destruction of the gender border as well as the nineteenth amendment to the United States constitution in the year 1920. This amendment gave women theright to vote. This is a large step forward from feudalism, where women were at the bottom ofthe hierarchy. This amendment gives women an official voice in the United States, in politics and society. This is a greater voice than that obtained by the trobairitz of Occitania.

The movement from and to physical boundaries may lead to the destruction of multiple boundaries or the installment on new borders. Ancient texts create foundations and a guide that show successful as well as unsuccessful border crossing. People of the modern age can use thetexts for reference. The modern age can be studied for correlations and similarities between border crossing. The structure within the texts, like The Odyssey by Homer, which has varioustranslations has border crossing within itself. The border of language is crossed through migration like the Venezuelans, Syrians, but also in translating the epic. For example, the 1965, Richmond Lattimore translation of the epic was faithful to its literal meaning but was missing the fluidity of the text. The importance of a proper translation is that it gives a proper sense andcontext of the text. Odysseus is introduced by Emily Wilson as “a complicated man” with manytwists and turns. This speaks directly to the audience, thus society and all cultures are filled with people complicated people with many entanglements and twists.

Crossing borders can be seen as method by which humanity tries to detangle and untwist all that iscomplicated. Crossing border dissolves visible and invisible frontier lines, so that people may better connect and better coexist. The texts were translated, to reach a wider audience and inspire a larger amount of people. The message that is spread through the translations is the crossing of borders, and prepares people with a better understanding of what to expect on the other side ofthe border. This creates travelers seeking stability, rather than primarily wanting to intrude like the colonizers during the period of “The Odyssey”.