Cairo Magazine - Arabic Literature 2.0

The Arab Internet Writers’ Union is trying, with mixed results, to pull Arabic literature into the 21st century. Founded in 2004, the union launched a test website last April (www.arab-ewriters.com). The union has members from many different Arab countries, including well-known figures such as Moroccan critic Mohammed Motassem, Egyptian writer Ahmed Al Khamisi and Kuwaiti writer Hayat Al Yaqout.

The union says it aims to spread awareness of “digital culture” among the Arab public. Its website publishes a great number of articles on information technology and digital literacy in the Arab world.

The website also publishes short stories, poems, novels, and critical essays under the heading Al Nashr Al Electroni (Electronic Publishing). Though its archive is comparatively small, it is regularly updated and within a short time should rival other Arabic literature websites such as www.kotbarabia.com. Short stories include Boqa Sawda (Black Spot) by Gawaher Al Refaiya, and Habibat Al E-mail (The E-mail Beloved) by Abdel Nur Edriss. It has also published book-length works of criticism, such as Qiraat Fi Adab Al Mara Al Khalijiya (An Assessment of Gulf Women’s Literature).

Besides publishing a great number of literary works produced by union members, the website also contains samples of what has come to be known as adab al waqeiya al raqamiya, or “digital realism literature.” It is for this new form of literary production—which includes sound tracks, visual effects and hyperlinks—that the website was mainly created.

Ahmed Fadl Shabloul, vice president of the union, says, “We are working on a theory of ‘digital realism literature,’ that will make literature more interactive through the use of available Internet tools such as multimedia and hypertext. It will be a more interactive literature—one in which the reader helps create the text.”

In one of the stories featured on the website, the reader gets to choose what events will come next by clicking on one of the numerous hypertext phrases at the end of each chapter, thus creating his or her own version of the story.

Union member Mohammed Al Sherbini shares Shabloul’s enthusiasm for the new literary genre. “The Internet is the future,” he says. “On the web you have more options, you can have three dimensional images, background music and many other special effects.” Al Sherbini is confident that soon interactive, digital literature will replace the traditional, printed kind. “Literature develops along with society. We started with the myth and the epic, and now we are moving towards digital realism—but of course, it will take people some time to accept the change.”

Many of the union’s own members, however, are far from accepting such changes. “Digital literature will never replace printed literature,” insists Mohammed Ateiya, a young writer who recently joined the union. “Reading a novel takes hours and to spend such a long time in front of the computer screen, with all the concentration involved in the process of reading, is not something that many can do—it hurts one’s eyes.”

Ateiya sees the union and its website mainly as a chance to publish. “Getting your work published on the Internet will provide you with a better chance of being read and consequently known,” he says. “Thanks to the union, I now have readers and friends not only from my governorate [Alexandria], but also from all around Egypt and the Arab world. Publishing online is also faster and less complex than publishing on paper.” Ateiya also says that publishing online provides writers with valuable feedback from readers.

“I like the fact that you get more space in terms of story length and freedom of expression,” adds Ateiya. Online publications in Egypt are generally uncensored. “We are not censored at all,” says Shabloul. “Our focus is on culture and literature, not politics or pornography. We are just a group of intellectuals, with no political aims, writing about a new creative genre, so we have no trouble with the government and won’t have in the future.”

Overall, the website looks promising, as do its future plans to release an e-magazine and establish an electronic publishing house and an electronic library.