Dr. Alaa Saleh Ubaid / College of Islamic Sciences – University of Karbala
The interactive text gains its essence—being a literary genre distinct from other literary genres—from participation (= interaction) as a general principle. The text’s product is expected to form through a creative triangle in the literary work, originating from the producer and passing through a horizontal line to the recipient, transforming into a vertical direction with gaps increasing between its parts, depending on the text’s ability to engage and the recipient’s literary competence and cultural depth, uniting with the producer’s intent at the apex of the triangle.
Thus, participation represents a distinguishing feature of the interactive text, as defined by the pioneer of interactive literature, poet Dr. Mushtaq Abbas Ma’n, in two forms: real participation and metaphorical participation. He explains that “the two types plant the seeds of change in the producer’s product, albeit at different levels and in diverse forms; the first escapes entirely from the stability framework and dissolves the usual dimensions of the world, such that one no longer finds a single form, but rather forms branching from an original creation. The second reacts with varying degrees according to how the text engages the recipient through entry options and navigation between the branches of the text, its deceptive formations, and phenomena, and the class structure, among others.”¹ He further specifies that the distinguishing criterion between the two forms is the recipient’s ability to alter their state through real participation by reprogramming and restructuring or by stopping at the threshold of the text. The digital interactive text incorporates both types.²
The patterns of participation—real and metaphorical—are outlined in four forms in the digital interactive text: interpretation, navigation, formation, and writing.³ We might suggest adding a fifth pattern based on Dr. Mushtaq Abbas Ma’n’s second interactive production, “The Infinities of the Fire Wall.” This pattern is discovery; the reader of this poem finds themselves before a black gate with a Latin-numbered clock whose hands rotate counterclockwise, devoid of instructions or a title. The reader is thus compelled to click parts of the visible image to satisfy their literary curiosity and discover the poem’s content. Here, the poet presents the reader with a new ground for interactive text—aside from the visual platform of the clock—that forms a mental virtual text in the reader’s mind, parallel to the external virtual text on the computer screen. The key to this imagined text lies in discovery, where the reader must identify the entry points into the interactive text, requiring intellectual effort based on their cultural, logical, and aesthetic understanding to predict and discover these points.
Once the poet ensures this partnership between the reader and the interactive text, ensuring a constant flow of information and evoking anticipation, they begin to reveal their thoughts in various forms—visual, auditory, and textual—inviting the reader to interact by seeking out the entry points in the interactive text.
To maintain this interactive spark with the reader, the poet employs a strategy blending two techniques: diversifying entry points and obfuscating them. The icon may occasionally serve as an entry point, and sometimes the word itself, making them elusive to the reader, whether at the level of their identification or their interpretation.
When the reader places the cursor on the axis of the clock hands, the title of the poem and the poet’s name emerge from either side, revealing the poem’s name and its author. This discovery reaffirms the centrality of this title and its authority over the meanings within the text, confirming that the interactive text itself is the focal point of the communicative process, with both the producer and the recipient forming peripheral elements of the text, contributing to its creation and completion.
Thus, discovery achieves a kind of reading proficiency in the recipient, allowing them to engage meaningfully with the interactive text.
The entry points in the interactive text are many, and we will refrain from revealing them all to preserve the pleasure of discovery for the reader of this article. However, we will mention a few, such as the floating nature of the poem on the page, where the reader must move the cursor over it. The reader is also encouraged to trace the words of the poem to uncover a link to another poem. Furthermore, in the far-right corner of the page, there is a vertical strip with a caricature of the figure “Hanẓala,” a symbol deeply rooted in the Arab cultural consciousness, walking backward. If the reader has developed their discovery skills through the preceding actions, they will not resist the literary curiosity to interact with the character, realizing it walks forward instead.
In this, the poet signals the reader to recognize the importance of tracking points in understanding the interactive text, as the scene represents a symbolic commentary on the Arabs’ regression, urging them to identify the causes of this decline and correct their course.
Therefore, the poet delivers a message to be read through the recipient’s interaction with the text, implying: “O discerning reader, you must discover to understand, you must discover to listen, you must discover so as not to lose yourself in this endless confession. It is not for you to interpret but to discover. There are hidden structural elements in the text that can only be reached through exploration. Discover them, and the text’s meaning will shift.”
In this regard, discovery functions similarly to the role that Haimes (1964) attributes to context: it serves a dual function by limiting possible interpretations and reinforcing the intended interpretation.⁴ In the midst of their search for these key points in the interactive text, the reader may either encounter them, thus advancing to a deeper level of the text and completing the meaning, or they may misinterpret and form an alternate text, creating a parallel to the poet’s original text. This, in turn, introduces another benefit of having such points in the interactive text: ensuring ongoing mental interaction with the text. The presence of these points requires the mind to remain immersed in an ongoing process of search, anticipation, and speculation, constantly generating new possibilities.
This inclusion of these points within the literary structure of the interactive text offers a focal alternative to the traditional concept of the focal word. It shifts the focus from a single word guiding the recipient’s understanding to a complete text incorporating a range of elements contributing to the meaning of the original text.
Moreover, the discovery process in this interactive text enhances its semantic richness, resulting in multiple layers of meaning, from surface to depth, which can only be fully understood through discovering the points leading to these subsequent levels. Without this discovery, the reader would remain bound to a superficial understanding of the text. In this, I see an element that could be added to the poet’s previous concept of “Qur’anic,” as it might be interpreted in terms of a hierarchical meaning structure, revealed to the reader based on their ability to discover.
Finally, the poet’s choice to obscure some guiding elements in the text suggests an influence from philosophy, encouraging the reader to trace the philosopher’s path in uncovering truths associated with the phenomenon, striving to find keys that reveal a proper understanding.
Thus, we are faced with a qualitative shift in literary production, driven by a vision that aims to immerse the reader in the text’s interactive essence, compelling them to submit to its hierarchical structure, breaking away from the traditional single-direction literary output.
¹ What the Letter Does Not Perform, Towards an Arab Interactive Literature Project, Dr. Mushtaq Abbas Ma’n: 25.
² What the Letter Does Not Perform, Towards an Arab Interactive Literature Project, Dr. Mushtaq Abbas Ma’n: 25–26.
³ See: Interactive Participation: A Reading Beyond Interpretation, Dr. Fatima Al-Bahrani: 83–84.
⁴ See: Linguistics of the Text: An Introduction to Discourse Harmony, Muhammad Khattabi: 52.
