TWITTER 2. What is Twitterature?

Twitterature: Literary classics rewritten for the 21st century You might think Shakespeare and Twitter have nothing in common, but reporter Mari Fagel found two students who are bridging the generational gap.

Twitterature is the amalgamation of ‘twitter’ and ‘literature’; the goal is to use the tweet as a literacy device, all the while respecting the limits of the 140 characters.

Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin are students at the University of Chicago and authors of Twitterature — the novel, published on April 1st, 2010. In this work, you will find over eighty of the greatest works of western literature – from Beowulf to Bronte, from Kafka to Kerouac, and from Dostoevsky to Dickens – each distilled through the voice of Twitter to its purest, pithiest essence.

Yet, the question begs to be asked: is Twitterature in a printed format still considered to be Twitterature? Do tweets need to be online to be considered Twitterature? Stéphane Bataillon conducts a state-of-the-field review on this very matter: Twittérature, la littérature sur Twitter : un état des lieux. According to Wikipédia, "twittérature" pre-dates "twitterature" as the former exists since Twitter's early beginnings in July 13th 2006, at the exact moment when it went live on the Internet. The Institut de Twittérature Comparée (ITC) is an excellent online resource (in French) to learn more about "twittérature".

"L’Institut de Twittérature Comparée (ITC) existe parce que Twitter existe. Parce que la littérature existe. Parce qu’il est possible de rédiger des textes en moins de 140 caractères (espaces compris). Parce qu’on peut être drôle et intelligent à la fois et vice versa. Parce qu’on peut être aussi simultanément dense et léger, brut et subtil, lent et rapide, cérébral et viscéral, poétique et discursif. La twittérature existe enfin parce qu’une nanorhétorique des antithèses, oxymorons compris, stimule l’essor et l’éclat ; elle y trouve sa piste d’envol et son champ d’exploration." (ITC)

Examples of Tweeters who write Twitterature

Very Short Story @VeryShortStory Twitter sized fiction for your entertainment. Stories by @sean_hill. Feedback welcomed. Send me a noun and I'll use the ones that inspire me in a story. Thanks.	smallplaces @smallplaces Story by @nickbelardes began April 25, 2008 and ended March 8, 2010. It's the first literary Twitter novel.
Félix Fénéon @novelsin3lines Narratives compressed into a single frame, these 3-line news items from Le Matin “are the poems & novels Fénéon never otherwise wrote.” Translated by Luc Sante.	Twaiku @twaiku Everywhere haiku twitters for your soul

SHARE! If you have suggestions on Twitterature, please tweet them to @cuckoografik!