In an age where cultures intersect and distances narrow, Arabic literature continues to pose its great question: how can a text cross borders without losing its features, and address humanity everywhere without abandoning its original roots? Caught between the universality of the human experience and the particularity of local identity, the Arab writer today stands before the delicate challenge of balancing the shared human common ground that unites people and the intimate details that give every city and culture its distinctive voice in the global narrative.
In this context, Al Bayan canvassed the views of a select group of writers and translators who participated in the 18th Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, which recently concluded in Dubai. They discussed how texts carry the voices of their cities to the world, and how a creative writer succeeds in transforming an authentic local experience into a human discourse capable of reaching readers in every language. They affirmed that the road to universality does not pass through conceding identity, but through deepening it and presenting it with a sincerity that makes it comprehensible and resonant for all.
Rhythms of place
Emirati novelist Dr. Faisal Al Suwaidi, Director of Museums at the Holy Quran Complex in Sharjah, affirmed that the details of cities and the rhythms of their streets are not mere spatial backdrops, but living elements that seep into writers' texts whether or not they are aware of it.
Al Suwaidi explained that the writer is, par excellence, a product of his environment, where the details of old cafés and popular alleyways are reflected in his writing spontaneously. He noted that when a creative writer leaves his homeland, he takes his city with him as a "moving spirit," adding that some cities visited on exploratory journeys refuse to leave us and remain etched in our memory.
Responding to the question of whether a writer can write outside the language of his original city, Al Suwaidi explained that this depends on the novelist's ability to identify with new places, noting that some novelists possess the tools to immerse themselves in other cultures through repeated visits, mingling with writers, and reading their literatures.
He pointed to cases that have failed to break free from the shell of place, where some write about world cities but with the spirit and characteristics of their own local quarters. He described cities as resembling people in their temperaments — some "loyal, arrogant, tender, or temperamental" — and said that people are drawn to cities that resemble them or that complete something lacking in themselves.
Dr. Faisal Al Suwaidi stressed the need to revive "travel literature" in the Arab world, considering it the most powerful tool a writer has to give each city its own particular tone and to enrich his experience of it.
A secret alphabet
Egyptian novelist and journalist Ahmed Al Morsi affirmed that cities impose their rhythms and daily details as a "secret alphabet" in literary and artistic texts. He noted that a creative writer cannot write outside the language of his city, explaining that spatial environments impress their character on their inhabitants — especially "workers of the imagination," who are influenced by the music of their cities and their concerns.
Al Morsi analysed the effect of the built environment on the nature of writing, highlighting the following points: large cities that produce texts distinguished by fast writing saturated with feelings of anxiety; small cities that tend to produce more contemplative and tranquil narratives; and spatial symbolism through which streets, buses, and cafés are transformed in the writer's imagination into signs, sentences, and linguistic signals.
On the subject of exile, Al Morsi explained that cities move with creative writers as a living spirit even if they are thousands of kilometres away, citing international and Arab literary examples such as: Mario Puzo, who wrote The Godfather while in America; Tayeb Salih, who created Season of Migration to the North far from Sudan; and Naguib Mahfouz, who penned his famous trilogy after leaving old Cairo.
Al Morsi warned of the dangers of "cultural flattening" resulting from globalisation, which seeks to reduce cities to identical moulds. He affirmed that the only way to survive is to preserve "uniqueness," describing writers as "ambassadors of their cities" — noting that one cannot truly know Beirut or Alexandria without Rabee Jaber or Ibrahim Abdel Meguid.
The psychology of place
Egyptian translator Daa Rahmi — who has enriched the Arabic library with translations of poetry giants such as Maya Angelou, Pablo Neruda, and Sylvia Plath — offered a deep critical and philosophical vision of the concept of the "psychology of place," affirming that cities are not mere geographical backdrops but a "secret alphabet" that shapes the creative writer's spirit and imposes its rhythm on his texts.
Rahmi explained that place imposes its language when it is bound to acute human experiences such as fear, love, and loss, noting that true writing does not describe a place as it exists in reality, but conveys the impression it has left on the writer's soul.
On the question of departure and exile, Rahmi argued that we do not leave cities behind; place transforms from a mere frame for living into an internal reference point against which we measure our subsequent experiences. It leaves within us a hidden standard: what resembles it grants us familiarity, and what departs from it awakens caution or a sense of estrangement.
Creative identity
In a deep reading of the relationship between the creative writer and his environment, Syrian writer and poet Ahmed Al Sah argued that cities impose their rhythms on the literary text and on art in general, affirming that a writer cannot be severed from his environment — which, together with the accompanying experiences of reading and travel, forms the fundamental material of his vision of life and his language.
Al Sah explained that simple daily details — such as traffic lights in cities, or the nature of life in villages, coastal areas, and mountain regions — are what shape a person's spirit and determine how he engages with reality, whether through immersion in a place or even its rejection.
He noted that when we leave cities, we take them with us as a moving spirit.
Al Sah gave the example of Kahlil Gibran, who spent most of his life abroad, yet his village and Lebanon continued to pulse through his poetry and memory.
Al Sah called for a state of harmony in which every individual carries his memory and culture to integrate with new cities without closing himself off, noting that the highest form of human culture lies in offering a model of coexistence and encounter rather than conflict.
In this context, Ahmed Al Sah highlighted the United Arab Emirates as the most important global civilisational model of peace and cooperation.