Telling the real: Literary reportage in contemporary Arabic literature

The objective of this paper is to delineate the recent evolution and innovations of literary reportage in contemporary Arabic literature, a genre of considerable significance for a number of reasons, primarily due to its capacity to engender a novel form of engagement. The paper seeks to furnish an overview of select reportages composed within the last two decades by writers who have employed this genre to investigate the connections between the creative word and committed journalism, between fiction and truth. The paper will then focus on the role of literary reportage in war situations, where it functions as a counter-narrative, emphasising the inescapable role of the written word in situations of violence and dehumanisation.