About parodies

About the survey

Definition
The distinction between parody and adaptation, imitation etcetera often is arbitrary. There is no generally accepted definition that would be helpful to decide whether a title is a true parody or not. The titles in this survey are mainly taken from Potter’s Bibliography (1929). However it may appear after inspection that some are not a parody at all, no matter what definition is held. Other sources are the list in Biegstraaten’s essay, Michelle Kaiserlian’s thesis Infinite transformation and the recently published volumes by Roger Paas.
Many of the listed earlier titles are available online at Archive.org.

Potter’s Bibliography
In Potter’s Bibliography many titles that appeared in various issues of a magazine or newspaper are listed under one number. For instance Potter 1187 (Book Lover) has three entries that I have subnumbered as 1187 A, 1187 B and 1187 C.
Some titles in Potter’s Chapter X (‘Parodies on the Rubáiyát Periodical Publicatins’) also appear in other chapters. 1187 B is also listed as 1024.
The titles in Biegstraaten and Kaiserlian have been numbered by the present author.

Other sources
For titles published after Potter, the selection is based on Biegstraaten, Paas and others. They are indicated as ‘P’ for Potter, ‘B’ for Biegstraaten, ‘Ps’ for Paas, ‘K’ for Kaiserlian.

Bibliography

A.G. Potter
A Bibliography of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám […] Ambrose George Potter. London, 1929. p. 269-300
In Potter’s Bibliography chapters IX and X deal with ‘Parodies on the Rubáiyát in Books’ and ‘Parodies on the Rubáiyát in Periodical Publications’.

J. Biegstraaten
‘Omar with a smile. Parodies in books on FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám’. Jos Biegstraaten.
Persica 20 (2004). p. 1-37
Biegstraaten’s article shows a table of parodies, based on Potter’s bibliography and the author’s own research. The titles in this table have no number. To be able to refer to a title in Biegstraaten, I have assigned a virtual number to each title in his list.

M. Kaiserlian
‘Other Primary Sources’
Infinite Transformation: The Modern Craze over the Rubáiyát of omar Khayyám in England and America, c. 1900-1930. Michelle Kaiserlian. Ann Arbor, 2010. p. 323-338
Chapter 3 ‘Other Primary Sources’, in the Bibliography part counts 267 titles, including a large number of parodies.

R. Paas
‘Parodies and Spin-offs in Books and Magazines’
Edward FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám and Related Materials […] Edited by John Roger Paas. Wiesbaden, 2023. p. 740-760
A large number of parodies is listed in Roger Paas’ catalog, including references to Potter’s Bibliography.