Featured Articles
Environmental Graphic Narratives
The essay expands the study of environmental comics by focusing specifically on the formal and conceptual possibilities of graphic storytelling. It highlights how the combination of image and text allows these narratives to represent environmental processes—such as pollution, climate change, and ecological interdependence—in ways that are visually immediate and emotionally engaging. The article emphasises that graphic narratives can depict scale, temporality, and non-human perspectives more effectively than purely textual forms, making complex ecological systems more accessible to readers. It also underscores the pedagogical and political potential of these works, particularly in engaging younger audiences and encouraging critical reflection and activism. At the same time, it draws attention to issues of representation, including whose voices and experiences are foregrounded in environmental storytelling. Overall, the article contributes a framework for understanding graphic narratives as a distinctive and influential medium within environmental literature and ecocritical discourse.
Fabliaux
The article examines the Old French fabliaux as a distinctive genre of short narrative verse produced between the late twelfth and early fourteenth centuries. It situates these texts within their social and literary context, highlighting their focus on everyday life, comic situations, and the subversion of social norms. The narratives often centre on trickery, sexual intrigue, and conflicts between classes, frequently targeting figures such as clergy, peasants, and bourgeois characters. The article emphasises the fabliaux’s use of realism, earthy humour, and irony, which contrasts with the idealised worlds of courtly romance. It also notes their performative and oral dimensions, suggesting that these texts were designed to entertain diverse audiences. By analysing their themes, style, and cultural function, the article contributes to an understanding of fabliaux as a key medieval genre that challenges authority, exposes hypocrisy, and offers insight into popular attitudes and social tensions of the period.
The Literate Glee: Sociable Singing for the Bourgeoisie
The article examines the notion of “literate glee” as a distinctive mode of literary expression characterised by wit, playfulness, and a visible delight in language. It situates this concept within broader traditions of stylistic virtuosity, including parody, metafiction, and intertextual writing, where authors foreground linguistic creativity and invite readers to engage actively with textual complexity. The article emphasises how such writing operates on multiple levels, blending intellectual sophistication with humour and entertainment. It also highlights the role of the reader, noting that literate glee often presupposes a culturally informed audience capable of recognising references and appreciating formal ingenuity. At the same time, it underscores the importance of affect, framing pleasure and delight as central to literary experience rather than secondary to interpretation. By articulating this concept, the article contributes a framework for understanding the interplay between linguistic skill, readerly engagement, and the enjoyment of literature.
Women's literature of the Lebanese Civil War
The article situates women’s literature of the Lebanese Civil War within its historical and political context, linking literary production to the sectarian and postcolonial structures that shaped the conflict. It highlights how women writers played a central role in documenting and interpreting the war, often producing narratives during the conflict itself rather than retrospectively. Their works span novels, poetry, and drama, and frequently foreground everyday survival, fragmentation of identity, and the social consequences of prolonged violence. The essay emphasises that these texts challenge dominant, male-centred war narratives by focusing on civilian experience, domestic spaces, and emotional realities. It also notes formal and linguistic experimentation, as writers sought new modes of expression capable of capturing chaos and multiplicity. Overall, the article contributes a framework for understanding women’s wartime writing as both testimony and literary innovation, expanding the canon of Arabic war literature while foregrounding gendered perspectives on conflict.
