Disputation literature is a type of text in which usually two non-human entities (such as trees
animals drinks or seasons) try to establish their superiority over each other by means of a
series of speeches written in an elaborate flowery register. As opposed to other dialogue
literature in disputation texts there is no serious matter at stake only the preeminence of
one of the litigants over its rival. These light-hearted texts are known in virtually every
culture that flourished in the Middle East from Antiquity to the present day and they
constitute one of the most enduring genres in world literature. The present volume collects
over twenty contributions on disputation literature by a diverse group of world-renowned
scholars. From ancient Sumer to modern-day Bahrain from Egyptian to Neo-Aramaic including
Latin French Middle English Armenian Chinese and Japanese the chapters of this book study
the multiple avatars of this venerable text type.
