This paper deals with the issues presented by both pre-existing terms used to describe concepts of sexuality in MSA and Lebanese Arabic as well as neologisms that have been created to describe these concepts. The aim of the paper is to look at the adaptation of language in the face of modernity and through the lens of postcolonial theory, and Lebanon has been chosen as a case study. That is, how has modernity affected concepts of sexuality in Lebanon, and how has this been shown through changes in language, and how much of this has been a result of colonial influence in Lebanon (and the surrounding Arab World)? Particular attention will be given to the literature that has been published by the Lebanese LGBTIQ activist groups Helem and Meem, such as Helem’s pamphlet Homosexuality: Myths and Facts. Also, media sources will be analyzed through the use of linguistic corpora, that is, large databases of media and Internet texts, to provide empirical data regarding the usage of terms in the Arabic language to describe concepts of sexuality in the Arab World. In a field where most of the research has been qualitative instead of quantitative, it is the hope of this writer that the inclusion of empirical data regarding the topic will be a useful addition. Also, the sociolinguistic contribution to studies of Arabic language and gender will be discussed as well in this paper. The central argument of this paper is that while Helem and Meem have been informed by the West in their discourse, instead of functioning as a direct “copy” of a Western LGBTIQ group and its discourse, they have, both by choice and by force, begun to create a new form of reverse discourse about sexuality that is capable of being both culturally appropriate and at the same time attacking what they see as the problems in Lebanese society. Furthermore, this writer argues that Helem and Meem’s activism, combined with the incitement to discourse on the topic that has taken place in the Arab World (particularly in Lebanon) has resulted in a form of “politically correct” terminology regarding the issue of sexuality entering into the Arabic language lexicon that did not exist there before.

Since its initial publication in 1942, Mohammad-Taqi Bahar’s “Sabkshenâsi” (“Stylistics”), perhaps the first ‘modern’ work of Persian literary historiography and stylistics which defines the discipline and canon of Persian literature, has remained deeply influential. Some scholars have addressed the role of gender specifically within the context of Iranian nationalism, including Bahar’s work as a nationalist literary critic. However, outside of analyses of the gendered aspects of the concept of Iran as nation, the categories of gender and sexuality remain largely unexamined in academic discussions of Bahar and his writings. This paper is an attempt to begin analyzing gender and sexuality more seriously in Bahar’s literary criticism. In particular, I will focus on drawing out his views on the traditionally homoerotic sexual aesthetics of classical Persian poetry, examining them in relation to the European ‘modernist’ disdain for homoeroticism and addressing the contradictory position Bahar (as both a defender of classical aesthetics and a champion of ‘modernization’) finds himself in. I will also consider his contempt for the Persian literature of India with regard to the question of sexual aesthetics, thinking through how Bahar dealt with the convention of heterosexual love in the Indian poetic tradition, which presented a challenge to his historiographical project, not fitting neatly into either Iranian classical conventions or European ‘modern’ ones. Theoretically, my paper will be guided primarily by Afsaneh Najmabadi’s work on modernity and shifting sexual aesthetics in Iran, particularly in her “Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards.” It will also be informed by discussions of Iranian homoerotic aesthetics in Sirus Shamisa’s “Shâhed-bâzi dar Adabiyât-e Fârsi” (“Witness-Play in Persian Literature”) and Willem Floor’s “A Social History of Sexual Relations in Iran,” as well as C.M. Naim’s description of Indian sexual aesthetics in his essay “The Theme of Homosexual (Pederastic) Love in Pre-Modern Urdu Poetry.” By bringing Bahar’s conflicted views on sexual aesthetics to the forefront of analyzing his literary criticism, I hope to further our understanding of his monumental work in the field of Persian literature, and contribute to the discussion on the role of sexuality in the making of Iranian modernity.

Unlike pre-modern Arabic literature which celebrates sexuality and sexual desire, contemporary Arabic literature has only occasionally engaged with such themes. Such attempts have been condemned as Adab Saqit, that is, disgraceful or decaying literature. For instance, Layla Ba‘albaki’s "Spaceship of Tenderness to the Moon" (1964) generated major literary and social controversy with its sharp criticism of received ideas about sexuality. Her work was considered foreign to Arabic literature and was severely condemned by the authorities which led to the author’s trial on charges of obscenity and harming the public morality. Consequently, the literary representation of sexuality and sexual desire in that period fell short of reflecting on a society undergoing socio-political transformation. Literary works tackling themes related to sexuality, mostly by male authors, were often framed within the colonial and post-colonial contexts hence reinforcing its “foreignness” one way or another. This paper explores the representation of sexual desire as “indigenous” to contemporary Lebanese literature through a comparative approach to the portrayal of sexuality in classical Arabic literature, especially adab al-Mujun. It argues that current literary examinations of sexual practices are derived from the cultural and socio-political dynamics of the societies in which they are produced. Through a careful analysis of two novels, Rash?d al-Da??f "To Hell with Meryl Streep" (2001) and Ulwiya Subh’s "Mariam of the Stories" (2002), this paper aims to identify stylistic elements of writing sexuality that defies its preconception in contemporary Arabic literature as a product of westernization and adaptations of western literary forms. Both writers deploy the novel as a tool to investigate the emerging sexual consciousness in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. This paper argues that such novels fit into a larger category of contemporary Lebanese war literature which explores other forms of identity (national, gender, ethnic etc.) Therefore, it suggests that the depiction of sexual performance, desire, and libido in Lebanese war literature is highly pertinent to adab al-mujun of classical literature rather than al-adab al-Saqit.