Humanities

18 pages, 320 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Dual Interpretations of the Millennial Kingdom in Early Modern Christian Apocalypticism

by Yixiao Sun

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030050 - 21 Mar 2026

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Millenarianism originated from apocalyptic literature in Judaism, emphasizing that the “Messiah” would establish a “millennial kingdom” on earth ruled by the Jews. This ideology became a theoretical weapon for Jews to resist imperial tyranny during classical antiquity and was later embraced by early [...] Read more.

Millenarianism originated from apocalyptic literature in Judaism, emphasizing that the “Messiah” would establish a “millennial kingdom” on earth ruled by the Jews. This ideology became a theoretical weapon for Jews to resist imperial tyranny during classical antiquity and was later embraced by early Christian theology. By the early modern period, with the intense unfolding of the Reformation and social upheavals, the theory of the “millennial kingdom” re-emerged as a mainstream topic in Christian theology. Regarding the nature of the “millennial kingdom” and how it would be realized, early modern Christian factions split into two interpretive camps. One emphasized the spiritual attributes of the “millennial kingdom”, while the other stressed its material aspects, advocating the violent establishment of a political entity on earth ruled by Christians. These two distinct interpretive models ultimately converged on the issue of colonial expansion, transforming millenarianism into a theoretical tool to justify overseas expansion. Full article

27 pages, 2930 KB

Open AccessArticle

Perspicuity, Acuity, and Illuminating Vision: Medieval and Early Modern Optics, Religion, and Literary Reflections of the Gaze in Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, Walter Map, Hartmann von Aue, the Melusine Romances (Jean d’Arras), and Froben Christoph von Zimmern

by Albrecht Classen

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030049 - 20 Mar 2026

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1302

Abstract

Medieval literature often seems to be a remote, irrelevant, incomprehensible world of narrative texts lost in heroic, religious, or courtly themes, limited to stories about King Arthur, courtly lovers, military heroes, and religious martyrs, saints, and prophets. In reality, as any expert can [...] Read more.

Medieval literature often seems to be a remote, irrelevant, incomprehensible world of narrative texts lost in heroic, religious, or courtly themes, limited to stories about King Arthur, courtly lovers, military heroes, and religious martyrs, saints, and prophets. In reality, as any expert can easily confirm, when we turn our full attention to pre-modern literature from across Europe (and also other parts of the world), we can often recognize the true extent to which poets utilized their narratives for spiritual, philosophical, religious, scientific, and medical explorations that have much to tell us today and prove to be deeply meaningful in a timeless manner. One key aspect, which was shared among virtually all medieval artists, poets, and theologians, consisted of the unique experience by an individual who is entitled through a physical opening to see into the depth or the height of all existence and can thus discover a wholly different world. Through this motif of the gaze, an entire epiphanic realization can set in, which thus quickly transforms the purely entertaining narrative medium into a narrative catalyst of profound spiritual experiences, helping the individual to gain inspiration from the Godhead (e.g., mysticism). Indeed, numerous times, medieval poets employed the motif of the visionary gaze, developed in very concrete terms, to trace and explain the process of perspicuity and accompanying acuity which ultimately leads to new intellectual, emotional, and religious understandings and experiences. While many intellectuals already embraced this notion of a visionary concept of spiritual comprehension, it might come as a surprise that secular and religious poets also operated quite intentionally with the concept of a hole in the wall or some other opening as a springboard for intellectual and spiritual experiences, directly drawing from the concepts of the optical sciences as understood at that time. Oddly but highly significantly, Christian and pagan notions tend to intersect in those narrative moments, particularly in late medieval literature, merging the visionary experience with the monstrous within human society, associating the gaze with the erotic and religious dimension. Full article

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15 pages, 261 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Transformation of Islamic Discourse in Turkish Novels: Social Change, Identity, and Narrative Aesthetics

by Nesrin Mengi

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030048 - 20 Mar 2026

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Abstract

Through the process of modernization, Turkish literature transcends aesthetics to reflect sociological and cultural changes. The tensions between the individual and society, tradition and modernity, and religion that emerged with Westernization are particularly reflected in the novel. Religious discourse takes different forms at [...] Read more.

Through the process of modernization, Turkish literature transcends aesthetics to reflect sociological and cultural changes. The tensions between the individual and society, tradition and modernity, and religion that emerged with Westernization are particularly reflected in the novel. Religious discourse takes different forms at each historical threshold during the modernization process. During the Tanzimat, Servet-i Fünûn, Milli Edebiyat and Socialist Realist periods, it served as a defensive or critical reference point in the face of debates on modernization and Westernization. With the secular policies of the Republic, its public function transformed, evolving into an arena for cultural and moral debate, and it increased its visibility within the multiparty political structure after 1950. From the 1980s onwards, Islamic discourse became an artistic and ideological force in both the social and literary spheres. This article examines the stages of Islamic discourse in Turkish novels within a historical framework, arguing that religious representations are not merely elements reflecting social change, but also play an active role in the reconstruction of identity formation and narrative aesthetics. The study analyzes the functions of religious elements using a text-centered approach. The findings show that religion is not merely a theme in literary texts, but a living element that transforms alongside society, influences identity formation, and shapes narrative aesthetics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Literature in the Humanities)

12 pages, 442 KB

Open AccessArticle

Governing Survival, Managing Excess: Selection, Evaluation, and Survival Labor in The Wandering Earth Franchise

by Zhuoyi Wang

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 47; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030047 - 18 Mar 2026

Viewed by 1261

Abstract

This article reads the recent Chinese sci-fi blockbuster franchise The Wandering Earth (2019) and The Wandering Earth II (2023) as linked thought experiments about planetary survival as governance. It argues that the franchise operationalizes survival through administrative techniques that allocate life chances and [...] Read more.

This article reads the recent Chinese sci-fi blockbuster franchise The Wandering Earth (2019) and The Wandering Earth II (2023) as linked thought experiments about planetary survival as governance. It argues that the franchise operationalizes survival through administrative techniques that allocate life chances and format subjects for compliance, including selection policy, evaluative procedures, and computational judgment. Drawing on feminist social reproduction theory, affective and emotional labor scholarship, and critical posthumanism, the article shows how the films redistribute life-making work under catastrophe by routing care, sacrifice, and intergenerational continuity through gendered paternal figures. Fathers become the privileged conduits through which attachment is rendered socially legible as authorized labor, while other forms of care remain structurally secondary unless crisis forces their instrumental uptake. At the same time, the franchise is preoccupied with the limits of procedural governance. Across both installments, paternal attachment repeatedly appears as a governance problem: it cannot be fully stabilized as procedure yet becomes actionable at system stress points. The survival regime thus depends on a recurrent sequence of emergency recruitment followed by retroactive legitimation, whether through official affect, selective recognition, containment, or memorialization. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Labor Utopias and Dystopias)

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32 pages, 502 KB

Open AccessEditorial

Prague German Circle(s): Stable Values in Turbulent Times? An Introduction

by Traci S. O’Brien

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030046 - 17 Mar 2026

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Abstract

This introductory essay revisits the concept of “Prague German Literature,” focusing on the Prague Circle’s engagement with enduring humanistic values amid early twentieth-century upheaval. While Franz Kafka is one of the most well-known authors of the twentieth century, this essay (and the Special [...] Read more.

This introductory essay revisits the concept of “Prague German Literature,” focusing on the Prague Circle’s engagement with enduring humanistic values amid early twentieth-century upheaval. While Franz Kafka is one of the most well-known authors of the twentieth century, this essay (and the Special Issue) highlights lesser-known Czech German authors and engages with the criticisms of the definitional boundaries of terms like “circle” and “school.” Drawing on recent scholarship, it situates these writers within Prague’s multilingual, multiethnic context and challenges postmodern approaches that reduce the literature to power discourse. Instead, it advocates for renewed attention to moral ambiguity, cultural mediation, and universal human concerns. Revisiting foundational scholars such as Max Brod, H. G. Adler, and Margarita Pazi, the essay also engages contemporary critics who propose more nuanced models of literary affiliation. Ultimately, this essay argues for the continued relevance of these authors in fostering intercultural dialog and reflecting on the (in)stability of values in times of crisis, framing the contributions of this Special Issue. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Prague German Circle(s): Stable Values in Turbulent Times?)

16 pages, 284 KB

Open AccessArticle

Miriam in Shreveport: Black History and Jewish Hermeneutics in Marian D. Moore’s Louisiana Midrash

by Brian Hillman

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030045 - 17 Mar 2026

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Abstract

Jewish thinkers and artists have used Midrash as a framework for exploring the entanglement of cultural inheritance and social justice projects. Marian D. Moore’s (1956–) poetry collection Louisiana Midrash (2019) exemplifies this dynamic. It blends Moore’s cultural landscape, Shreveport and New Orleans, Louisiana, [...] Read more.

Jewish thinkers and artists have used Midrash as a framework for exploring the entanglement of cultural inheritance and social justice projects. Marian D. Moore’s (1956–) poetry collection Louisiana Midrash (2019) exemplifies this dynamic. It blends Moore’s cultural landscape, Shreveport and New Orleans, Louisiana, African History and the Biblical and Midrashic literary traditions. Moore’s unique poetic voice, in the context of twenty-first century Midrash grounded in Jewish tradition, explores the intersection of African American history and Jewishness. Moore’s Midrashic poetry integrates African American and Jewish traditional biblical interpretation with the cultural reality of post—Katrina Louisiana. This article will discuss several of Moore’s poems in the context of her Black poetic Midrashic framework. The analysis illustrates how Louisiana Midrash shows the flexibility of Midrash as a creative genre and literary form, as it grows beyond a normative Jewish framework and becomes open to a multitude of voices and perspectives. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Comparative Jewish Literatures)

13 pages, 197 KB

Open AccessArticle

Worlds of Possibility: Tabletop Roleplaying Open Gaming Licenses Meet Interactive Fiction

by Trent Hergenrader

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030044 - 17 Mar 2026

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Abstract

This article argues that students inspired by stories set in enormous open-world videogames can use a combination of free interactive fiction (IF) tools and tabletop role-playing game open gaming licenses (OGLs) to simulate stories that allow their players to customize their characters based [...] Read more.

This article argues that students inspired by stories set in enormous open-world videogames can use a combination of free interactive fiction (IF) tools and tabletop role-playing game open gaming licenses (OGLs) to simulate stories that allow their players to customize their characters based on their play style preferences, and to face obstacles that require virtual dice rolls where the player may succeed or fail. This provides them with an experience similar to writing for a major videogame franchise and go through the thought processes required when writing interactive narratives. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronic Literature and Game Narratives)

14 pages, 243 KB

Open AccessArticle

Media Intertextuality in Digital Fiction and Games: Evolution and Tradition

by Mariusz Pisarski

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030043 - 6 Mar 2026

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Abstract

The goal of the article is to demonstrate the common threads and methods of studying digital storytelling as a unified, second-order aesthetic code. Just as the category of translation, when applied to digital literature, was expanded into a more complex set of methods [...] Read more.

The goal of the article is to demonstrate the common threads and methods of studying digital storytelling as a unified, second-order aesthetic code. Just as the category of translation, when applied to digital literature, was expanded into a more complex set of methods known as media translation, the article applies similar logic to the notion of intertextuality and proposes an augmented form of “digital“ or “media intertextuality“. Games, interactive fiction, hypertext fiction, story generators, and other born-digital forms are all “texts” that share evolutionary poetics and intertextual strategies extending beyond language into multimodal, procedural, and embodied affordances. Drawing on the concept of structural quotation and semiotic calques, this article suggests that intertextuality should operate across multiple extra-linguistic registers: visual, procedural, and embodied. Neither evolutionary continuity nor broad intertextuality have been sufficiently emphasized in current game studies outside the literary angle. In several examples and case studies—from Zork II to World of Warcraft—this paper demonstrates how repetition with difference, brought about by intertextual links, generates evolutionary continuity and intertextual richness. In this dialogical ecology, AAA blockbusters and experimental works are worth studying together, even if, within the discourse of digital entertainment, they are currently at war. The former push the boundaries of expressive possibility, whereas the latter accrue cultural capital by reworking and critiquing shared codes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electronic Literature and Game Narratives)

16 pages, 1247 KB

Open AccessArticle

Surrealism Re-Viewed: L’Esprit Surréaliste

by Stanley E. Gontarski

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030042 - 5 Mar 2026

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Abstract

Surrealism persistently resisted its own historicization, defining itself not as a literary or artistic movement but as an activity of the mind aimed at total liberation. This essay re-examines surrealism’s internal contradictions: its rejection of literature alongside its dependence on literary institutions; its [...] Read more.

Surrealism persistently resisted its own historicization, defining itself not as a literary or artistic movement but as an activity of the mind aimed at total liberation. This essay re-examines surrealism’s internal contradictions: its rejection of literature alongside its dependence on literary institutions; its commitment to psychic freedom alongside political orthodoxy; and its hostility to authorship alongside the production of canonical works. Drawing on manifestos, journals, performance practices, and postwar critical reception, the essay situates surrealism at the fault line between modernism, Dada, and later poststructuralist theory. It argues that surrealism’s most enduring legacy lies less in its aesthetic products than in its reconfiguration of cultural authority among artist, artwork, and reader, a redistribution that continues to shape contemporary literary, media, and performance studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Literature in the Humanities)

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9 pages, 211 KB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

“Sex Is an Accident”: Heterosexual Celibacy in the Political Writings of Eva Gore-Booth

by Sonja Tiernan

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030041 - 5 Mar 2026

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Abstract

Eva Gore-Booth (1870–1926) was a significant contributor to the Celtic Literary Revival at the turn of the twentieth century; however, her literature differed immensely from that of her male counterparts. Gore-Booth’s writings had a prevailing feminist message, while her later works were manifestly [...] Read more.

Eva Gore-Booth (1870–1926) was a significant contributor to the Celtic Literary Revival at the turn of the twentieth century; however, her literature differed immensely from that of her male counterparts. Gore-Booth’s writings had a prevailing feminist message, while her later works were manifestly concerned with the study of sexuality and the deconstruction of gender. Gore-Booth’s literature remained vastly overlooked and undervalued until recent times. In the twenty-first century, her poetry and plays are experiencing somewhat of a resurgence. Amid Gore-Booth’s modest literary revival, this article examines her writings from a fresh perspective. Tracing Gore-Booth’s social reform work and later devotion to the New Age religion of Theosophy, it is evident that her writings increasingly endorsed celibacy. This article will highlight how Gore-Booth advocated for celibacy as a radical practice with the potential to dismantle the social construction of gender and of presumed heterosexuality. Notably, Gore-Booth only advocated for heterosexual celibacy, placing same-sex relationships as the ideal, especially lesbian partnerships. This research centers on readings of Gore-Booth’s lesser-known writings including a neglected play Fiametta, her theological writings and the journal Urania which clearly express her revolutionary ideas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Celibacy in Irish Women’s Writing)

19 pages, 3629 KB

Open AccessArticle

In the Shadow of Photography: Indexicality, Death, and Family Memory of the Second World War

by Joachim Schiedermair

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030040 - 5 Mar 2026

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Abstract

The article has two objectives: It begins by noting that, in memory studies, indexicality has thus far played a role primarily in the analysis of photographs. Central to this was Roland Barthes’ insight that photography should be read not only as an iconic [...] Read more.

The article has two objectives: It begins by noting that, in memory studies, indexicality has thus far played a role primarily in the analysis of photographs. Central to this was Roland Barthes’ insight that photography should be read not only as an iconic sign but also as an indexical sign: a photograph touches us not only through what it shows, i.e., not only as a pictorial representation of its referent, but also through the fact that it is an imprint of light, causing it to function like a trace in the snow. While the insight into the indexical quality of photography has been extremely fruitful, it is surprising that other indexical signs (such as shadows or echoes) have received no attention in the discussion of memory studies. The first objective of this essay is to make a start on this, and it does so in dialogue with a Norwegian comic book. In Steffen Kverneland’s Skygger (Shadows), family memories of the German occupation of Norway play a decisive role. Most studies of World War II in contemporary literature focus on how historical events are represented. Kverneland takes a different approach. He is not interested in the representation of memories but in the function of remembering. He relates memories of World War II to current crises and to the aesthetics of his artistic work. The second objective of this essay is to analyse the comic, paying close attention to the various dimensions of indexicality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Memories of World War II in Norwegian Fiction and Life Writing)

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8 pages, 175 KB

Open AccessArticle

Defeating Apathy and Ease with One Punch: Modernity and the Problem of Omnipotent Boredom

by Mark DiMauro

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030039 - 4 Mar 2026

Viewed by 1553

Abstract

Saitama, the titular hero of ONE’s One Punch Man, is a man so absurdly powerful that nothing, and no one, can stand against him. This limitless ability, rather than acting to make a superhero idol of Saitama, has instead reduced his psychological [...] Read more.

Saitama, the titular hero of ONE’s One Punch Man, is a man so absurdly powerful that nothing, and no one, can stand against him. This limitless ability, rather than acting to make a superhero idol of Saitama, has instead reduced his psychological state to that of extreme nihilistic apathy. It is not until Saitama begins to unlock other aspects of his life, including friendship and community, that he begins to see there is more to life than strength. Working within the satirical bounds of the text, which skewers everything from false fulfillment in accolades to false friends to just about every superhero and manga trope in between, Saitama eventually reengages with his life and becomes far more heroic because of it. In the Overview, the text discusses the manga’s origin and explains some of the satirical jabs. In the Heroic Journey, the article takes you through Saitama’s past and current mental state. In the Super Takeaway, the life lesson Saitama’s story can teach us is that even in the face of boredom and a world in which work itself feels obsolete, there remain ways to overcome apathy so long as we are willing to find them for ourselves. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Power of Superhero Literature: Applying the Lessons of Superheroes to Real Life)

15 pages, 310 KB

Open AccessArticle

Science Fantasy in the Trente Glorieuses: Maurice Limat’s Chevalier Coqdor Cycle

by Amy J. Ransom

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030038 - 28 Feb 2026

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Abstract

During the years of the so-called Trente Glorieuses (1945–1975), with its economic recovery after World War II, France witnessed the development of a technologized consumer society and a technocratic approach to public planning, which fostered a futuristic outlook and a boom in paperback [...] Read more.

During the years of the so-called Trente Glorieuses (1945–1975), with its economic recovery after World War II, France witnessed the development of a technologized consumer society and a technocratic approach to public planning, which fostered a futuristic outlook and a boom in paperback publishing. A major success story of this era was the Éditions Fleuve Noir science-fiction series, Anticipation, to which popular genre author Maurice Limat contributed numerous novels. Although marketed as science fiction and set far in the future and in outer space, Limat’s novels featuring the Chevalier Bruno Coqdor resemble more often those of a knight-errant from medieval romance. These works of space fantasy express medieval nostalgia but also engage the massive social changes occurring in France during this period while extrapolating France’s survival in the distant future. Full article

14 pages, 255 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Global Ballad: Kuyili, Female Militancy, and Romantic Untranslatability

by Kaushik Tekur

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 37; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030037 - 28 Feb 2026

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Abstract

This article examines the revival of the Romantic Ballad in contemporary anglophone writing through Vanavil K. Ravi’s The Ballad of the Warrior-Girl, which reimagines the Tamil folk figure, Kuyili and her role in the Sivagangai rebellion, a Romantic-era anti-colonial uprising in South [...] Read more.

This article examines the revival of the Romantic Ballad in contemporary anglophone writing through Vanavil K. Ravi’s The Ballad of the Warrior-Girl, which reimagines the Tamil folk figure, Kuyili and her role in the Sivagangai rebellion, a Romantic-era anti-colonial uprising in South India. In retelling this folk memory, Ravi mobilizes a Romantic-era form to recast an instance of a local uprising, rife with caste dynamics, into a national and globalized narrative aligned with neo-nationalist storytelling conventions. By transforming a lower-caste, female militant in a local language into a Hindu, pan-Indian icon of patriotic martyrdom, Ravi’s ballad participates in a larger trend of globalized translations. I situate the text within intersecting histories of Romanticisms, balladic traditions, and the global circulation of literary forms. Through this, I outline what I call the ‘global ballad’ as distinct from the ‘globalized ballad’. While the latter flattens cultural difference into consumable cosmopolitanism, the former centers opacity and untranslatability across rhizomatic relationalities. I show how reading literary texts alongside different critical traditions is a productive way to counter the exoticized, neoliberal circulation of literature in translation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anglophone Riot)

19 pages, 6046 KB

Open AccessArticle

Digital Storytelling and Cultural Identity in Romanian Memetic Discourse

by Alexandra-Monica Toma and Mihaela-Alina Ifrim

Humanities 2026, 15(3), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/h15030036 - 27 Feb 2026

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Abstract

This article examines Romanian internet memes as cultural micro-narratives that encode social critique, identity negotiation, and emotional response through compressed, multimodal storytelling. Using a mixed-method approach, the study integrates qualitative narrative analysis with quantitative sentiment data drawn from the RoMEMESv2 corpus, comprising 983 [...] Read more.

This article examines Romanian internet memes as cultural micro-narratives that encode social critique, identity negotiation, and emotional response through compressed, multimodal storytelling. Using a mixed-method approach, the study integrates qualitative narrative analysis with quantitative sentiment data drawn from the RoMEMESv2 corpus, comprising 983 Romanian-language memes. The analysis identifies recurrent narrative roles and plot structures adapted from Propp’s morphology and applied to digital contexts, revealing archetypal roles, such as the slacker hero, the bureaucratic villain, the domestic guardian, and the trickster. From a quantitative point of view, the corpus exhibits a dominant negative sentiment, particularly within political memes, which combine systemic critique with affective ambivalence. These findings distinguish Romanian memes from datasets in other languages, suggesting that negativity functions not as deviance, but as a culturally specific narrative and emotional resource. Multimodal analysis demonstrates how visual and textual elements operate through anchorage, intertextuality, and symbolic compression, so as to construct narrative messages within single frames. The study argues that Romanian memes function as digital folklore: they narrate social frustration and institutional distrust through irony, repetition, and archetypal condensation, offering insights into the emotional and narrative logic of post-communist digital culture. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cross-Borders and Crossroads—Sharing Cultural Memory and Identity Negotiation in South-Eastern European Narratives)

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