Literature, Journalism and the Avant-Garde: Intersection in Egypt

Journalism played a role of unparalleled importance in the evolution of modern literary forms and techniques in Arabic. This book explores the role of journalism in Egypt in shaping the development of modern Arabic literature from its inception in the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. In particular, it seeks to re-map the Egyptian literary scene over recent decades by focusing on the independent, frequently dissident, journals that became the real hotbed of an innovative literary activity inflected by politics as censorship and licensing laws drove experimentation underground. It is in this context that the journal became, paradoxically, the "traditional" forum for innovative literature. Using a broad range of original Arabic sources read against avant-garde theory and Bourdieu's theory of fields, the author shows how the journal became the life-blood of a whole literary sub-field able to operate (semi-) autonomously of establishment institutions. It is the vibrant dynamic powered by literary journalism and the dialectic between literary margin and mainstream that this book seeks to reconstruct. While broad in historical scope, this study emphasizes the enduring influence of the "sixties generation" - the subject of increasing scholarly interest - and the pivotal role of the avant-garde journal "Gallery 68" in fostering a sense of literary modernism in Egyptian and, to a larger extent, Arabic fiction.