Kazakhstan library inaugurates Francophone literature section with over 200 books from France and Belgium
On June 4, a section of Francophone literature was inaugurated by the embassies of France and Belgium in Kazakhstan at the National Academic Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Astana. The library will get more than 200 books as part of the celebration. Henri Vantieghem, the Ambassador of Belgium to Kazakhstan, and Alex Bortolan, Counselor for Culture and Cooperation of the French Embassy, attended the corner's launch, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
The French Embassy provided literature of various genres, both in the original language and in translations. The library's collection will include poetry and plays, classic and modern novels, as well as illustrated publications about French culture. Among the donated books are works by such famous authors and philosophers as Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as French Nobel Prize winners in literature: Annie Ernaux, Albert Camus, and Andre Gide.
Alex Bortolan recommended reading "Anierno,"which is the last Nobel Prize winner. In an interview with Kazinform, he shared: “I am very glad that this opening took place today. In fact, we have been discussing this project for a long time with the director of the National Academic Library. And for a long time, they wanted to replenish the library’s collection in French. But at the same time, we thought that it was worth not only limiting ourselves to classical literature in French but also providing readers with the opportunity to become familiar with literature in Kazakh and Russian, that is, in translation. Since not all readers, of course, and library visitors know French. And plus, we decided that it would probably be good to also give us the opportunity to discover the monuments of Paris and their paintings. That is, we also included in this fund books about not only literature but also books about the landscapes of France, about the culture of France, about fashion, for example. So that there is some variety and so that readers can enjoy discovering not only literature but also culture in general.”
The Belgian Embassy also made a significant contribution by donating a wide range of Belgian literature in French to the library. Among the gifts are a youth publication with magnificent illustrations, “Everyone's Shadow” by Melanie Rutten, the novel “Real Life” by Adeline Dieudonné, which won several literary awards, and the comic book “Bicycle Race Through Belgium” by Mr. Lu, which tells about the author’s journey on a bicycle across the country.
“This is a great event here because I think that we live in a multi-polar world and a multi-polar world also means a multilingual world. And so we have different languages that are practiced by the people and this opening of this section at the National Library of Kazakhstan in Astana is making accessible the French culture and the French literature to the people. So it's quite important indeed,” Henri Vantieghem said in an interview with a Kazinform News Agency correspondent.
The opening of the Francophone literature section in the library follows the annual multidisciplinary festival “Francophone Spring," dedicated to the French language and the diversity of Francophone cultures, which is organized throughout Kazakhstan.
