Literature:
Literature provides us with an esthetically configured window and reflection
on life, on the world and on things.
It may therefore be regarded as the principal gateway to knowledge of
values, the esthetic sense and the imagination in every culture. It enables
the reader to find in the other the mix of identification and difference
that distinguishes as much as it enriches humankind. And since recognition
and knowledge of the other are the very pillars of dialogue, literature is a
strategic field for the construction of the defenses of peace in the minds
of men.
It was said, that books are written in Egypt, published in Lebanon, and read
in Iraq.
Being a product of the mind, and not always committed to a material support,
literature rightly belongs to the intangible heritage. The fact is that oral
literature continues to hold its own in no uncertain manner in all
traditional societies in every continent; without any technical support, it
relies exclusively on the human voice, imagination and memory. Literature’s
extensive association with books means that is equally at home in the
tangible heritage. In other words, at a time when the potential for
technical reproduction of works of art knows no limit, this is also a sector
of international economic activity operated by a chain running from author
via publisher to reader.
