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Poetry competitions are significant activities within the literary and cultural realms. These competitions reflect people's interest in poetry and poets. The book "Al-ʿAqīdah al-Adabīyah fī Sabʿah al-Funūn al-Maʿnawīyah" by Aḥmad al-Rabbāt al-Halabī, a folk poet who lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, provides valuable information about competitions held among folk poets who specialized in seven types of poetry: Şi›r al-Karīd, Muwashshah, Dū-beyt, Kān-wa-kān, Zajal, Qûma and Mawāliyyā. These competitions, which took place during the Ottoman period, were organized objectively and institutionally, following specific rules in public venues accessible to poets, writers, and the general public. Despite being overlooked in Arab literary history books, these competitions were held in coffee houses in the Levant and Egypt during the 18th century, and the winning poet would receive a prize consisting of a caftan and a monetary reward. This article aims to shed light on this cultural and literary activity based on the aforementioned book, providing insights into the cultural and literary life in the Levant and Egypt towards the end of the 18th century. The article is divided into two main sections: the first provides an overview of Aḥmad al-Rabbāt al-Halabī and his book "Al-ʻAqīdah al-Adabīyah fī Sabʻah al-Funūn al-Maʻnawīyah" while the second offers detailed information about the venues, organization, and awards of these poetry contests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies the trajectory of the writer Virgílio Várzea (1863-1941) and his relationship with the naturalist aesthetics. It proposes that Várzea and his work represent a "Southern naturalism", a naturalist strand with more description than narration, linked to the Goncourt brothers and to a conception of naturalist fiction as "painting of pictures". In Santa Catarina, Várzea led an anti-romantic crusade supported by a broad spectrum of modern and scientific ideas that he called "naturalism". There he published with Cruz e Souza the short story volume Tropos e fantasias (1885), marked by naturalist and evolutionist themes and ideas. When he migrated to Rio de Janeiro in 1890, he brought "Southern naturalism" to the cultural capital of the country, in the context of the post-imperial euphoria and the Old/New x North/South polemic, which he co-starred in with Oscar Rosas (1864-1921) and other Southern writers. The "Southern naturalism" was an alternative to the canonical "Northern naturalism" represented by Aluísio Azevedo (1857-1913) and Adolfo Caminha (1867-1897). Virgílio Várzea's trajectory reveals that there were other conceptions of naturalism in circulation and competition in 19th century Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article gives a general overview of Hebrew literary life in Warsaw, and provides new perspectives on Hebrew fiction written in and about the city in the period of 1880-1920. The study results from the need to understand Hebrew literature within the inherently multilingual, transnational nature of the Jewish literary activity in the city and is based on a large corpus of Hebrew fictional texts that scholars did not consider earlier. It describes Hebrew literary life in Warsaw, as well as the different ways in which Warsaw's cityscape and the urban experience are represented in Hebrew stories and novels written between 1880 and 1920. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay the renowned critic Nicolae Manolescu presents a memoir of his literary experiences since his schooldays until the post-socialist period in Romania. Noteworthy is the lack of linearity in the narrative, which questions several literary stereotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]