On October 20, 2022, as part of a series of activities commemorating the opening of the Francophone Book Space, the National Library of Viet Nam (NLV) collaborated with the International Organization of La Francophonie to organize a seminar on Francophone Literature. The seminar is led by Dr. Tran Van Cong, Dean of the French Faculty at Hanoi University, President of the Association of Schools Teaching Francophone Literature and Humanities, and Chairman of the Jury for the Five Continents Prize of the Francophonie in Viet Nam.
Representatives from the NLV's leadership and staff, as well as students from the Faculty of French at Hanoi University and many close readers, attended the seminar.
Topics covered by the speaker include: French Literature and Francophone Literature, as well as Typical Francophone Literature and Vietnamese Francophone Literature.
France is a country rich in literature, the birthplace of many world-famous authors such as Molière, La Fontaine, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Balzac, and Zola... with romantic and realistic literary styles. Throughout its history, French literature has been renowned and recognized all over the world. Not only do we look at the novel, but also works in other genres such as theatre, poetry, allegory, memoir, and so on. Furthermore, Francophone literature is also the literature of other French-speaking such as Belgium, Canada, Tunisia, and Viet Nam…
In terms of quantity and quality, works written in French by Vietnamese people such as the Tiểu thuyết Bà Đầm (Tentatively translated as “Novel Ba Dam”) by Truong Dinh Tri, 1930; Truyền thuyết miền tĩnh thổ (Tentatively translated as “Legend of the Still Land”) by Pham Duy Khiem, 1942; Văn minh Annam (Tentatively translated as “Annam Civilization”) by Nguyen Van Huyen, 1944;... have created a literary line that has a reason to exist in the heart of the national community as well as has a worthy position in the heart of world literature. Firstly, they display fluency in French, capable of acquiring and articulating the nuanced, rich, and complicated subtleties of a Western language that they value over their mother tongue. Secondly, they utilize French to write about their country's customs and habits, as well as its people, to promote their culture to the French in particular, and outsiders in general. Thirdly, the French language were utilized as a weapon to respond to colonial thought, the ruler's colonial attitude toward the ruled. Their mission is to bridge the divide between the West and the East, as Pham Quynh says: “For the intellectuals of the South nation, French is the language of culture. To us, it is the key and the weapon. The key opens to us the treasures of Western thought; weapons that protect us and liberate us spiritually, morally, politically, and economically.”
Furthermore, the speakers also introduced the public and readers to works that have won the Five Continents Prize of the Francophonie and have been translated into Vietnamese. Those works include Le Corps de ma mère (Tentatively translated as “The Secret of my mother”) by Tunisian writer Fawzia Zouari and La Théo des fleuves (Tentatively translated as “The Story of the Gypsy woman”) by Belgian writer Jean-Marc Turine - that reflect cultural diversity, highlighting literary talents on five continents and promoting them on the international literary scene.
The discussion took place in a dynamic and unified environment, allowing the public and readers to obtain a greater grasp of multicultural and colorful Francophone literature, stirring their passion for the French language. Students will also get the opportunity to improve their understanding of the French language and culture.
Photos of the same event:
Overview of the Seminar
Speaker Dr. Tran Van Cong - Dean of the French Faculty, Hanoi University
The representative of the National Library of Viet Nam presented flowers to the speaker
The public and readers took souvenir photos with the speaker
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News: Phương Nhung; Photos: Thuỳ Dung