Four events at Abu Dhabi Bookstore address the Egyptian civilizational and cultural scene

Saad Abdul Radi (Abu Dhabi)

The Abu Dhabi Book Fair witnessed a number of events for the country, the guest of honor (Egypt) at the pavilion of the Egyptian General Book Authority, which shed light on several aspects of the Egyptian civilizational and cultural scene, where Dr. Mamdouh El-Damaty, the former Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, was a guest in a rich session related to ancient Egyptian civilization and its connection to living reality, as it is influential in the fields that we practice in the modern era in science, arts, sports, and even the language used, whether classical or colloquial. Dr. El-Damaty also touched on many of the social aspects that Including the appreciation and respect for women among the ancient Egyptians, whether in government and positions or in other life matters.
The pavilion also witnessed another session centered around poetic theater, in which journalist Abdul Salam Farouk spoke. The meeting was moderated by writer Marwan Hammad. Farouk initially spoke about his book “Poetic Theater Towards a New Theory,” which was issued by the Egyptian General Book Authority, moving on to talk about poetic theater. In general, and its crises at the present time, Farouk said about his book, which he spent many years writing, that it is linked to the generation that came after Salah Abdel Sabour, the most prominent of whom is the poet Farouk Juwaida, and his poetic plays such as “The Lover Minister,” and he talked about the multiple problems facing poetic theater, saying: “ In this book, I wanted to monitor the root of the problem with regard to poetic theatre: is it reception, composition, or production?

Mahfouz and the world
A session was held entitled: “The Contribution of Egyptian Women’s Voices to the Arabic Novel,” in which the novelist Doha Assi and the novelist Dr. Safaa Al-Najjar participated, and they were interviewed and critically discussed by Dr. Sami Suleiman. Novelist Doha Assi confirmed that Egyptian and Arab female voices have been clear in the recent period, and this is normal because society has changed and given women great spaces and opportunities. While the novelist Dr. Safaa Al-Najjar pointed out that women’s writing has become serious writing at an intellectual level that requires a trained reader to be able to interact with the text that expresses the writer’s culture.
A recorded visual material was also broadcast entitled: “Naguib Mahfouz in the Eyes of the World” by the late Dr. Muhammad Anani, Dr. Maher Shafiq Farid, within the theme of (Naguib Mahfouz in Memory of the Cairo International Book Fair), to celebrate in its thirty-fourth session the international writer Naguib Mahfouz reaching the ninety years of age.