From Page to Screen: The Rise of Digital Literature in Pakistan

Abstract

In this article, the introduction of digital literature, i.e. Instagram poetry, You Tube spoken word, Wattpad and Blogs and online journals are recorded. In Pakistan, and argues that the digital contexts are transforming the circumstances of literary production, readership, and censorship in the past few years.. Employing a qualitative, exploratory research approach, Digital Humanities (DH) provides a useful theoretical lens for examining the transition of literature in Pakistan from print to digital forms. Utilizing elements of digital ethnography to better understand the rise and development of digital literature in Pakistan, this research shows how platform affordances (visual design, interactivity, multimodality) shape new genres and promote new readerships, act as potential sources of empowerment for marginalized communities, and also, in the same breath provide new sources of vulnerability in the face of state and platform-level censorship. The article concludes to identify implications for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to consider digital literature studies in Pakistani curricula and to think, create, and act in ways that create and support safe, ethical digital literary spaces.