Qatar Cultural and Heritage Events Center, in cooperation with Al-Manar Model School, organized a workshop entitled “The Art of the Short Story” at the Doha International Book Fair.
The workshop’s presenter, Lubaba Al-Hawari, said that the workshop aimed to provide a historical overview of the Arabic and Western short story, and the types and models of narrative vision, adding that the workshop included the components of the story in comparison with the novel.
At the beginning of the workshop, Al-Hawari presented a historical overview of the Arabic story, which included folk biography, fables, stories of specific social groups, manāmāt (the art of dreaming) maqāmāt (prosimetra), the literature of the Mi’rāj (Ascension of the Prophet into Heaven), and stories of real, imagined, and philosophical journeys.
She pointed out that these texts represent an important nucleus in the journey of the Arab story, because of the great impact of these stories in raising the value of storytelling in the Arabic culture, adding that they constitute a rich asset for the story as well, which were to help in the emergence of many Arab storytellers.
She explained further that it is important to point out the great impact of the stories of the Holy Qur’an in incentivizing storytelling in the Arabic and Islamic culture, such as the stories of the prophets and the righteous people, the news of previous nations, and some stories narrated in the Prophetic tradition (Hadith), such as the story of the Companions of the Cave (Ahl Al Qahf).