This Month's Free Articles
- Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Albert Memmi
- Anne Brontë
- László Krasznahorkai
- Seamus Heaney
- A Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin)
- Civil Disobedience (Henry David Thoreau)
- Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit [The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction] (Walter Benjamin)
- Frankenstein in Baghdad (Ahmed Saadawi)
- Grettis saga (Anonymous)
Featured Articles
Financial Revolution
The article examines Britain’s economic transition between 1688 and 1750, driven by the need to finance military conflicts and colonial trade through long-term national debt backed by parliamentary taxation. It shows how the establishment of pivotal credit institutions -- most notably the Bank of England in 1694 and the Bank of Scotland in 1695 -- shifted the economic foundation from traditional landed property to paper currency, joint-stock ventures, and mobile "moneyed interests". The repercussions of this revolution (such as the unchecked speculation culminating in the 1720 South Sea Bubble crash) triggered widespread ethical and political anxiety, prompting major satirical responses from contemporary Tory writers such as Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and John Gay.
Humour (types thereof)
Surveying the underlying mechanics and diverse applications of comic expression, the article investigates how humorous mechanisms operate within social contexts and literary traditions. The text outlines three dominant theoretical models -- superiority, psychological relief, and script-based incongruity -- to explain what triggers amusement, while noting the inherent difficulty of capturing such a subjective phenomenon. Beyond theoretical definitions, it demonstrates how literary modes like parody, satire, and dark humour utilize incongruity and subversion to offer comic relief, challenge socio-political power, or process trauma. Ultimately, the piece underscores that humour functions across genres as a dynamic instrument for creative experimentation and critical inquiry.
Modern Haiku
The essay charts the evolution of modern Japanese haiku, beginning with Masaoka Shiki’s late nineteenth-century introduction of shasei (“sketching from life”) to revitalize a stagnant poetic tradition. The overview follows the genre's subsequent trajectory through the conservative traditionalism of Takahama Kyoshi’s Hototogisu journal, the emergence of early female voices, and the birth of radical free-form (jiyūritsu) movements. After enduring state wartime censorship, postwar haiku branched into political “societal haiku” (shakaisei), surrealist avant-garde experimentation, and eventually a return to simpler, accessible forms. It shows how modern writers continue to adapt the craft for contemporary audiences, expanding haiku beyond literary journals through digital media, public workshops, and television.
The Spanish Epic
Tracing the development, transmission, and thematic depth of medieval Castilian heroic poetry (cantares de gesta) composed between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, this essay addresses the genre’s complex literary evolution. Long-standing academic debate, spurred by sparse manuscript survival like the Cantar de mio Cid, pits “neo-traditionalist” ideas of oral, historical origins by lay minstrels against “individualist” arguments for learned, legal, or monastic authorship. Organized across four major narrative cycles (Visigothic, Carolingian, Castilian Counts, and Cidian), the tradition heavily influenced the later romancero ballads. Moving beyond basic martial celebration, Castilian heroic narrative serves as a sophisticated lens for evaluating social mobility, domestic honour, gender dynamics, and cross-cultural relations in medieval Iberia.
