Literature Preserves Cultural Identity Amid Globalization, Say Authors at Sharjah International Book Fair 2025
Sharjah — Despite the accelerating forces of globalization and the digital age, literature remains deeply rooted in culture and continues to safeguard identity and collective memory, authors said at the 44th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) 2025.
At a panel discussion titled “Literature and Social Identity,” writers from Lebanon, Pakistan, Nepal, and Syria explored how storytelling maintains cultural belonging, documents social change, and connects personal and communal experience.
According to Al Mudassar News Agency, the panel brought together Lebanese academic Dr. Mamoun Tarbieh, Pakistani writer Mira Sethi, Nepali novelist Samrat Upadhyay, and Syrian author Sumar Shehadeh.
Dr. Tarbieh described literature as both an intellectual and social force that captures traditions, rituals, and emotions. Authentic writing, he said, goes beyond aesthetics to influence how societies see themselves, retaining relevance even as global trends blur cultural boundaries.
Pakistani writer Mira Sethi highlighted the personal nature of creativity, noting that true writing stems from lived emotion. She stressed that authors must be free from imposed restrictions and should question social and political systems. “A writer’s first loyalty is to their experience and honesty,” she said.
For Nepali novelist Samrat Upadhyay, the universality of human emotion allows literature to cross cultural borders. While his stories originate in Nepal, he said their themes resonate globally. Politics, he added, inevitably shapes storytelling because writers reflect the environment around them. “The power of literature lies in its openness to all shades of human experience.”
Syrian author Sumar Shehadeh drew on the devastating impact of war and displacement on his country, using fiction to document trauma and fractured identity. His novels depict characters burdened by loss and fading memories of home. “Identity becomes fractured in conflict,” he said. “Yet it remains the core of human truth.” For Shehadeh, literature must confront painful realities with sincerity and moral courage.
The discussion concluded that, even in a rapidly changing world, literature endures as a vessel of memory, identity, and empathy — carrying forward the timeless human impulse to tell stories.
