The "Luxor Poetry Festival" Continues Amidst a Creative Surge

"Luxor Poetry Festival" Continues Amidst a Creative Surge

Luxor –

The Luxor International Poetry Festival witnessed a surge of creative activity on its second and third days, featuring a literary seminar, an art exhibition, four poetry evenings, and a series of book signings. These events are part of the ninth edition of the festival, which is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, and is organized by the Department of Culture in Sharjah and the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.

The festival was attended by His Excellency Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Owais, Chairman of the Department of Culture in Sharjah, Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim Al Qaseer, Director of the Cultural Affairs Department at the Department of Culture, Dr. Mohamed Hassani Ali, General Director of the Public Library of Egypt in Luxor, Professor Dr. Ahmed Yehia Hamza, Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Luxor University, Dr. Saleh Abdel-Mateen, Head of the Design Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts, along with a group of academics, students, writers, artists, and the public.

Over the three days of the festival, the cultural scene felt intertwined with the historical landscape of Luxor. Poetry and art merged in a spiritual duality, infusing the city of Upper Egypt with visual and lyrical beauty.

On the second day of the festival, literary criticism had a prominent presence, with a seminar titled "The Convergence of Literary Genres in Contemporary Arabic Poetry," which featured critics Dr. Hussein Hamouda, Dr. Kamila Abdel Fattah, Dr. Mohamed Selim Shousha, and Dr. Nancy Ibrahim, moderated by Dr. Mohamed Al-Noubi. The seminar was followed closely by the audience, who engaged actively with the researchers and the topic at hand.

The seminar provided an in-depth study of the convergence of genres in poetry, posing the question of the intertwined relationship between literary genres and contemporary poetry.

The research and studies presented highlighted the connection between narrative, theater, and poetry, while also shedding light on contemporary developments in poetry, particularly in light of the technological advances in artificial intelligence.

Dr. Nancy pointed out that dramatic poetry goes beyond the simple traditional narrative towards theatrical drama, incorporating all of its modern elements, addressing the reader on two levels by blending two literary genres (poetry and theater). It moves beyond the traditional concept of "place" as merely a backdrop for events, making it an integral part of the poetic action and adding a dynamic, functional dimension to the text.

Dr. Mohammed Shousha presented a perspective on the initial motivations and sources behind the blending and intertwining of literary arts, attempting to address a central question about the formation of this phenomenon and its deep-rooted drives. He emphasized that it is connected to stages of literary unconsciousness and the subconscious mind, rather than being a deliberate or intentional artistic choice.

Dr. Shousha’s paper explored this phenomenon in its psychological dimensions and its intellectual roots within the framework of cognitive theory in literary criticism. He also sought to provide deeper insights into the creative process and the underlying processes in the human mind, discussing artificial intelligence as an exceptional case that humans are currently experiencing. He clarified that this technological development is now providing striking examples of poetry.

Dr. Hussein Hamouda's presentation reviewed several critical approaches to the topic of the seminar, including articles, books, and academic studies, before focusing on one of the representations of literary genre blending in contemporary Arabic poetry, particularly related to the experience of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

In this representation, Dr. Hamouda summarized that the phenomenon of "literary genres in poetry" can vary in its degree of presence and its aesthetic features, even within the work of a single poet across different stages of their career, suggesting that this phenomenon can vary and differ from poet to poet and even from one poem to another.

Dr. Kamila further deepened the idea of literary genre convergence by referencing the history of Arabic literature, noting that the blending of poetry and storytelling dates back to the pre-Islamic era, as seen in the richness of the classical mu'allaqat ("hanging poems"), which feature narrative elements. She highlighted this blending in contemporary Arabic poetry—both in its realist and modernist forms—pointing out that poets found in the narrative structure the space needed to express their human experiences.

Following the seminar, a poetry session took place, featuring poets: Samir Darwish, Shireen Al-Adawi, Emad Ali, Obaid Abbas, and Masoud Shoman, moderated by poet Mahmoud Marai.