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balaghas.bsky.social
Global Literary Theory
@balaghas.bsky.social
190 followers 100 following 44 posts
Global Literary Theory on @medium.com brings world literatures into comparison. Currently running the Palestine Writers Workshop. EIC @rrgould.bsky.social. We began life as an ERC Grant and now celebrate poetics. https://medium.com/global-literary-theory
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An Intimate History of Violence: Beirut Under Siege in the stories of Palestinian writer Nejmeh Khalil Habib @interlinkbooks.bsky.social rgould.substack.com/p/an-intimat...
Black and white image of Beirut preview of essay with black and white image of Beirut
November 22, 2025 at 1:08 AM
balaghas.bsky.social
We're speaking for Medium Day about Empowering Palestinian Voices Through Mentorship (1:30 GMT/ 8:30AM ET). Join us by registering here:
events.zoom.us/ev/Av7REBItl...
September 19, 2025 at 12:25 PM
balaghas.bsky.social
Thank you @soaspress.bsky.social for featuring our latest mentor report! Read it here:
medium.com/global-liter...
Funded by the SOAS Impact and Knowledge Exchange Fund, the Palestinian Writers’ Workshop provides online workshops to young writers in Palestine in collaboration with The Hands Up Project. In a blog on Medium, volunteer Rim Aoude reflects on the experience.
July 28, 2025 at 11:52 PM
balaghas.bsky.social
News from our partners at The Hands up Project!

We’re thrilled to announce the Palestine Writers’ Workshop: A Mentorship Exchange Programme, in partnership with @soasuni.bsky.social and the Global Literary Theory project @balaghas.bsky.social.
We’re thrilled to announce the Palestine Writers’ Workshop: A Mentorship Exchange Programme, in partnership with SOAS University of London and the Global Literary Theory project 12 gifted young Palestinian writers — from Gaza, the West Bank, and the displaced community in Egypt — are being mentored by leading poets and authors in the UK. Together, they’ll co-create a powerful new book that shares their stories, voices, and visions with the world. 🌍✍️🇵🇸 This initiative is more than just writing — it’s about mentorship, solidarity, and the transformative power of storytelling. Stay tuned for updates and sneak peeks from this inspiring collaboration! We’re thrilled to announce the Palestine Writers’ Workshop: A Mentorship Exchange Programme, in partnership with SOAS University of London and the Global Literary Theory project 12 gifted young Palestinian writers — from Gaza, the West Bank, and the displaced community in Egypt — are being mentored by leading poets and authors in the UK. Together, they’ll co-create a powerful new book that shares their stories, voices, and visions with the world. 🌍✍️🇵🇸 This initiative is more than just writing — it’s about mentorship, solidarity, and the transformative power of storytelling. Stay tuned for updates and sneak peeks from this inspiring collaboration!
June 27, 2025 at 1:18 PM
balaghas.bsky.social
Our co-edited @britishacademy.bsky.social volume, Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Poetics: Towards a Post-Eurocentric Literary Theory, is now available online. Order for your libraries or get in touch if you’d like to write a review!
https://academic.oup.com/british-academy-scholarship-online/book/60334
June 3, 2025 at 5:25 PM
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May 10, 2025 at 12:45 AM
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We have reached 1000 followers! Thanks to all our readers and contributors!

Reach out via DM if you have something to share on world literature and poetics (reprints / republished work is welcome).
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April 27, 2025 at 8:08 PM
balaghas.bsky.social
Our team member Kayvan Tahmasebian’s newest article is out in open access from Philological Encounters: "From Explication to Order: The Persian Vernacularization of Arabic Rhetoric"
brill.com/view/journal...
Abstract This article explores the vernacularization of Arabic rhetorical embellishments by Persian rhetoricians, presenting it as an early instance of comparative literary theory emerging through translation. Focusing on the organizational figurative device laff-va-nashr (“wrapping up and rolling out”), I trace its adaptation from Arabic rhetorical sources into fourteenth-century Persian rhetorical manuals.
December 30, 2024 at 12:37 AM
balaghas.bsky.social
Forthcoming in the next issue of Philological Encounters
from our team member Kayvan Tahmasebian "From Explication to Order: The Persian Vernacularization of Arabic Rhetoric"

From the abstract "This article explores the vernacularization of Arabic rhetorical embellishments by Persian rhetoricians"
"From Explication to Order: The Persian Vernacularization of Arabic Rhetoric" by Kayvan Tahmasebian Abstract This article explores the vernacularization of Arabic rhetorical embellishments by Persian rhetoricians, presenting it as an early instance of comparative literary theory emerging through translation. Focusing on the organizational figurative device laff-va-nashr (“wrapping up and rolling out”), I trace its adaptation from Arabic rhetorical sources into fourteenth-century Persian rhetorical manuals. The discussion addresses the complexities of the coexistence of laff-va-nashr and tafsīr in Persian rhetorical handbooks and examines the subtle innovations Persian rhetoricians introduced to this figure. By charting its transformation from an author-oriented device (tafsīr) to a reader-oriented one (laff-va-nashr), this study highlights a significant example of cross-fertilization between philology, translation, literary theory, and hermeneutics in Persian rhetoric. Ultimately, this comparative analysis of Persian and Arabic rhetorical traditions serves as a preliminary step toward understanding Islamic balāgha as an intrinsically multilingual poetics.
December 6, 2024 at 3:46 PM
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Soon to be published by @britishacademy.bsky.social! The proceedings of our inaugural conference:

Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Poetics: Towards a Post-Eurocentric Literary Theory

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Book cover for Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Poetics: Towards a Post-Eurocentric Literary Theory, edited by Hany Rashwan, Rebecca Ruth Gould, and Nasrin Askari. Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press. Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Poetics: Towards a Post-Eurocentric Literary Theory is a pioneering book that offers a fresh perspective on Arabic, Persian, and Turkic literature in their interrelations. The authors challenge Eurocentric paradigms while creating a framework for exploring these traditions on their own terms. Authored by an international team of scholars, the chapters centre the conceptual foundations of their respective literary traditions, with a focus on the discipline of comparative poetics (ilm al-balāgha) in the Islamic world. Contents List of Figures and Tables ix Notes on Contributors x Appreciation xiv Note on Transliterations xv Introduction: The Challenges of Comparison 1 REBECCA RUTH GOULD 1 The History of Literary Theory in Medieval Arabo-Islamic Cultures 20 HANY RASHWAN 2 The Arabic Commentary Tradition on Aristotle’s Rhetoric: A New Space for Greek Logical and Rhetorical Terminology 52 LAHCEN EL YAZGHI EZZAHER 3 ‘The Central Jewel’: The Poetics of the Khuṭba, Khiṭāba, and Balāgha According to Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih of Córdoba (d. 328 AH/940 CE) 63 LINDA G. JONES 4 The Poetics of Preposing and Postposing (Taqdīm and Taʾkhīr) in the History of Bayhaqī 85 LEILA SEYED-GHASEM 5 The Beauty of Misleading: Ambiguity in Persian Poetics and Ghazal Poetry 115 NATALIA CHALISOVA 6 The Science of Poetics and Persian Literary Riddles: The Case of Majd al-Dīn Hamgar 141 ASGHAR SEYED-GOHRAB 7 A Maghribī Poetics of Ageing? Ibn Rashīq, al-Qarṭājannī, and Ibn Ḥamdīs on al-shayb wa-l-shabāb 158 NICOLA CARPENTIERI Beyond Eurocentric Turkology: Turkic Poetry, Persian Prosody, and the Making of a Non-Language-Specific System MARC TOUTANT 9 Exploring the Arabic and Persian Concept of Imitation (Tetebbuʿ) in 16th-Century Ottoman Biographies of Poets AIŞE HANDAN KONAR 10 The Proof of God’s Eloquence in the Poetics of Şeyh Gâlib (d. 1213 AH/1799 CE) BERAT AÇIL 11 Metaphorical Literalism and the Poetics of Reality: Aḥmad Aḥsāʾī, Figuration, and the World of Images TODD LAWSON 12 From Balāgha to Intiqād: Politicising the Science of Literature in Modern Arabic Literary Thought HAIFA ALFAISAL 13 Arabic Poetics and Prosody in Practice: Najīb Surūr’s Experimentalism in ʻKalimāt fī-l-ḥubbʼ (‘Love Words’) CHIARA FONTANA Index 180 199 215 236 274 304 339
December 6, 2024 at 3:14 AM
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#GlobalLit #Gazapoetry #GazaLiterature #ArabicLiterature #Balagha
December 22, 2023 at 3:42 PM
balaghas.bsky.social
#GlobalLit #Gazapoetry #GazaLiterature #ArabicLiterature #Balagha
December 22, 2023 at 3:40 PM