Arabic Literature Goes Digital

This chapter provides the historical context in which Egyptian blogs appeared. Drawing on ethnographic research on the Internet and in the Egyptian literary sphere, it shows that the introduction of Internet tools in the Arab world was soon accompanied by the emergence of numerous platforms for distributing and discussing Arabic literature, such as forums, literary websites, online publishing houses, the Internet Arab Writers Union, and so on. This atmosphere was conducive to the adoption of blogs as a platform for literary experimentation in Egypt. The chapter then focuses on blogging in the Arab world and in particular in Egypt, providing a short history of its development. It also addresses how Internet media have affected Arabic literature as a tool for publishing and distribution, as in the case of book-blogs.

Conclusion: A New Literary Genre and a Social Uprising

The chapter sumps up the main themes and findings presented in the book. It concludes that blogging has led to emergence of a new literary genre, as well as has allowed young Egyptians to reshape their identity, connect to each other and rebel against the authorities. Placing blogs in the larger history of Arabic autobiographical genre, it argues that the autofictional blog, in some ways, continues the role played by the autobiographical novel or novelised autobiography in the twentieth century. In addition, the interactivity afforded by blogging has helped intellectuals to re-establish connections with the public sphere and to communicate with their readers, a connection that was lost in recent decades, particularly the 1990s. Finally, the chapter advocates for further studies on Arabic digital expression, as well for trans-historical studies on the impact of media on Arabic culture.

Blogging a Revolution: From Utopia to Dystopia

The chapter discusses the relation between these blogs and the events of the 25th January uprising. It recounts how bloggers imagined a revolution in their writing long before the actual political events of 2011; how they relate to the uprisings in their blog; how blogs have evolved in the years after 2011, and what is left of the blog in Arabic literary production. Here it shows that blogging continues to be an important phenomenon in the Arab world, even though blogging practices have changed following the spread of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. In addition, the blog continues to impact Arabic print literature, in terms of young authors’ access to the literary field, their experimentation with language and genre, and the importance of the visual. The novel Istikhdam al-Haya (Using Life, 2014) by Ahmed Naji, mentioned before, and Youssef Rakha’s novel Bawlu (Paulo, 2016) are analysed to discuss the link between the blog, the dystopic novel and new literary styles in Egypt.

When Writers Activate Readers

This chapter looks at the ways in which the blog transforms adab and in particular the autobiographical genre in Arabic literature. Drawing on theories of autofiction, digital literature and Arabic print literature, it explores the innovative features of autofictional blogs resulting from the adoption of Internet technology. These are (1) interactivity, (2) the blurring of the author/main character, (3) the multimedia, open nature of the blog texts, and (4) their stylistic features. By depicting modes of interaction between readers and writers in the Egyptian blogosphere, the chapter shows how the autofictional blog transforms the practice of writing the self into an interactive game to be played among authors and readers, away from the gatekeepers of the literary institutions. This game requires the readers to be active participants in the interpretation of the text by discovering the blurred identity hidden behind the screen; to find their way in the open, multimedia text; and to contribute actively to the plot and style of the narrative. An aspect related to the interactivity of blogs is “audience gatekeeping”, that is that, in the absence of gatekeepers, readers may themselves take charge of this task, sometimes turning into “online haters”.

Mixed Arabic as a Subversive Literary Style

The chapter shows how bloggers mix of elements drawn from high and low varieties (Mixed Arabic) and foreign languages to develop new literary styles. It adopts Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of ‘minor literature’ (1983) to illuminate the subversive nature of bloggers’ literary practices. The concept of ‘minority’ sheds light on the collective and political value of this literature, as it is produced by writers who publish their personal life-stories on the Internet to distance themselves from mainstream, state-owned media, to connect with each other and push the boundaries for freedom of expression. Besides, ‘minority’ allows to understand the use of mixed varieties of Arabic as a ‘deterritorialized language’, that is, a new, subversive literary style coined by a young generation of writers who feels alienated in respect to the national standardized written language. This chapter is based on the analysis of the six blogs chosen as case studies, but it includes examples drawn from the larger sample of blogs. It combines theories drawn from sociolinguistics and literary studies. Furthermore, it shows some examples of editorial choices made concerning this style when blogs are turned into books.

The Paratext of Egyptian Blogs

In this chapter, the book shifts to an analysis of the blogs as autofiction. This section deals with the paratext, that is information that is secondary to the main text, such: titles, choices of authorship (onymity, pseudonymity); the visual layout of the blog; interviews with the blog authors revealing their social backgrounds and their reasons to blog. The first part of the chapter focuses on the analysis of the paratext of the six blogs chosen as case studies: Wassiʿ Khayalak (Widen Your Imagination) by Ahmed Naji; Ma Bada Li (What Seemed to Me) by Amr Ezzat; Tanatif Maʿat (Ma3t’s Bits and Pieces) by Mona Seif (Munā Sayf); Yawmiyyat Imraʾa Mithliyya (Diary of a Gay Woman) by the writer who uses the pseudonym ‘Emraamethlya’; Al-Kanaba al-Hamra (The Red Sofa) by Bilal Husni (Bilāl Ḥusnī); and Yawmiyyat ʿAnis (Diary of a Spinster) by Abeer Soliman (ʿAbīr Sulaymān). In the second part, the data retrieved from these blogs are analysed together with the larger sample of blogs selected for this study.

Introduction: Egyptian Blogs between Fiction and Autobiography

This chapter presents the main topic of the study and the theoretical and methodological framework used in the book. First, it argues that, so far, the debate concerning blogs has tended to consider them as forms of diary, i.e. non-fiction while few scholars have looked at blogs as a new literary genre. In the Arab world, blogs have mainly been studied as tools for political activism, while some attention has been given to blogs turned into books. Therefore, the theory of ‘autofiction’ is introduced as a possible interpretative framework to understand the literary features of some blogs. Focusing on Arabic literature, the chapter shows that that although the term ‘autofiction’ was coined in France in 1970s, the practice of fictionalizing the self has a long tradition in Arabic literature. Finally, since Internet literature is a relatively new field of research, the chapter briefly illustrates the methodology and challenges adopted in this study, and in particular: the selection of primary sources; the benefits of combining close reading with interviews, and the researcher’s ethical stances concerning Internet material and interviews in time of a popular revolution and military censorship.

Bytes of Freedom: Fictionalised Bodies in the Egyptian Blogosphere

This chapter focuses on the main contents and themes developed in the blog. Here, the body is identified as the recurring theme in blogger’s identity construction. Indeed, the blog is conceived as an attempt at recollecting the scattered pieces of the body, as it allows the description of feelings and emotions, which are considered the true attributes of one’s individuality. At the same time, the body is re-imagined in the forms of animals, objects, Egyptian goddesses and small children, as a means of taking refuge from the constraints of daily reality. While autofictional authors worldwide are often accused of exhibitionism and narcissism, the study argues that for these Egyptian bloggers, writing the body is political because it displays in public how power is imposed on their bodies. The chapter also elaborates on the fact that writing the body on the blog was conducive to the exposure of the body in the 25th January uprising, as evidenced by the mobilisation for Khaled Said’s (Khālid Saʿīd) murder at the hands of the police, the public discussions on sexual harassment, and Aliaa al-Mahdi’s (ʿAlyāʿal-Mahdī) nude pictures on her blog Mudhakkirat Thaʾira (A Rebel’s Diary, 2011–).