Politics and Digital Literature in the Middle East

During the 2000's, online literature in Arabic language was popular among a larger readership. Writings on subjects dealing with politics, globalization, and social matters gained are well-received. While mapping the genre, this monograph shows literary developments in print and digital during these peak years to provide a historical context for the material. Online literary culture is linked to social, economic, and political developments within the last two decades. This book presents the differences between online and print literature as it relates to writer-readership interaction, literary quality, language and style, critical reception, and circulation. The geographic location of the analysis focuses on Gulf countries featuring a comparative study of Egypt and Lebanon.

Nele Lenze is Visiting Assistant Professor at the Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait. Her main research interests include media and freedom of speech in the Gulf. Recently, she co-edited Converging Regions: Global Perspectives on Asia and the Middle East (2014) with Charlotte Schriwer, The Arab Uprisings: Catalysts, Dynamics, and Trajectories with Fahed Al-Sumait and Michael Hudson (2014), and Media in the Middle East: Activism, Politics, and Culture (2017) with Charlotte Schriwer and Zubaidah Abdul Jalil.