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Autofiction on Screen: Self-representation of an Egyptian ‘Spinster’ in a Literary Blog
In this paper the blog Yawmiyyat 3nis [Diary of a Spinster] written by the Egyptian 3Abeer Sulayman [Abeer Soliman] is conceived as a form of autofiction. In fact, two aspects of online writing are of great importance for Egyptian bloggers. Firstly, blogging has given the Egyptian young people the possibility of sharing their innermost feelings and daily frustration without the fear of identification and humiliation due to their relative anonymity. Secondly, the computer operates as a projective device that allows users to discover and create different versions of themselves (Sorapure, 2003). Thus, blog writing facilitates autobiographic writing but at the same time turns daily life into fiction. The analysis of Abeer Soliman’s blog aims to show how the computer has an impact on the way diaries are written. On a structural level, I will highlight the presence of distinct literary features that are enhanced by the medium: the use of visual/audio components, the interaction with readers, and the presence of links. All these elements are essential for the understanding of Abeer’s self-representation.
Jill Walker Rettberg - 23.11.2012 - 13:36
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Electronic Literature as a Means to Overcome the Supremacy of the Author Function
In his seminal essay “What Is an Author?” Michel Foucault maintains that we can only accept literary discourses if they carry an author’s name. Every text of poetry or fiction is obliged to state its author, and if, by accident or design, the text is presented anonymously, we can only accept this as a puzzle to be solved, or, one could add, as an exceptional experiment about authorship that is verifying the rule. This was in 1969. In the meantime, a profound change of all forms of social interaction has been taking place. Amongst them are works of electronic literature that use the computer in an aesthetic way to create combinatory, interactive, intermedial and performative art. One could argue, of course, that electronic literature as new media art often only is a proof of a concept addressed to the few tech-savvy select. However, these purportedly avant-garde pieces break the ground for developments that might happen barely noticed, and by this serve an important political, ideological, aesthetic and commercial purpose. Amongst these developments is a change of the seemingly irrevocable rule of the author in literary discourses.
Hannah Ackermans - 16.11.2015 - 10:07
