A country of literature

Ukrainian publishers have prepared about 1,000 new items, including children’s books, fiction, nonfiction, business literature, etc., for the 7th International Festival “Book Arsenal” at Kyiv’s Mystetsky Arsenal. It was attended by about 70 foreign guests from 23 countries. “This festival represents the cultural and intellectual potential of a whole country,” festival coordinator Oksana KHMELIOVSKA says. “It meets societal and cultural demands, so we have planned a lot of debates on the current situation, the war, post-ATO rehabilitation of children, etc.”

Writer Oksana ZABUZHKO, in charge of the special program “Tell Me about Me,” is convinced: this year’s Book Arsenal proves that Ukraine begins to be one of the top book nations. “Our book market is thriving now – new genres are coming up headlong and lacunae are being filled,” she says. “Popular science literature for teenagers, nonfiction – these and other genres have flourished in the past few years.”

LAUGHTER WINS

The focal theme the organizers chose this year is “Laughter, Fear, Strength.” “Our team of curators is sure that strong ones laugh and thus beat fear,” Khmeliovska explains. “The Ukrainians are a strong nation, so we are going to win.” The goal was to explore the nature of laughter, including its role in the times of crisis.

The Book Arsenal has prepared a number of thematic – theatrical, performative, and visual – events to mark the 175th anniversary of the publication of a full version of Ivan Kotliarevsky’s Aeneid. In particular, it was the exhibit of legendary illustrations by Anatolii Bazylevych, on which the artist worked for about 10 years. Mystetsky Arsenal was also hosting an exhibit of contemporary cartoons (on the second floor) and a big set of drawings on various themes from the humoristic magazine Perets of different years of publication. In general, this year’s Book Arsenal was particular in being multidisciplinary. What attracted public attention was, among other things, the music program presented by EM-VISIS, an international project of experimental electronic music and media art, managed by the well-known composer and electro-acoustic music expert Alla Zahaikevych.

READING IN SCHOOL

In the view of Mystetsky Arsenal director Olesia OSTROVSKA-LIUTA, to encourage reading is the most important precondition for the development of a book market in Ukraine. “This process has already begun, but we also need a special program to develop reading,” she says in a comment to The Day. “It is necessary to alter the school curriculum which exerts a powerful influence on what we – both children and adults – read. The Ministry of Education and Science has already taken the first steps in this direction. We may seem to be speaking of remote factors, but they in fact have considerable consequences. If this reform is successful, we will be able to teach our children to read better, more profoundly, and with more interest in five-to-ten years’ time. This will promote further development of the book market, for the latter needs, above all, readers. This year the Book Arsenal has launched a literary laboratory that is supposed to stimulate the literary process. The first event as part of this project was a preliminary reading of Volodymyr Yermolenko’s novel The Catcher of an Ocean aimed at helping the professional audience to better understand the writer and the way he wrote his book. Besides, we are trying to establish a link between the literary process, litterateurs, and teachers.”

ENCOURAGING UKRAINIZATION

In the opinion of Bohdan CHERVAK, first deputy chairman of the State Television and Radio Committee, although the measures aimed at limiting the import of Russian books are supposed, above all, to protect this country’s information security, they also promote the development of Ukrainian book publishing. “Today, I decided to examine all the stalls and estimate how many books are in Russian and in Ukrainian, whether there are books of Russian publishing houses, etc.,” Chervak says. “I was pleasantly astonished to see much fewer books in the Russian language in comparison with the past year’s fair. I’ve seen so far no Russian publishing houses that were, much to our regret, presented past year. By the very force of fact, we are Ukrainizing the publishing sphere, making it Ukrainian not only by name, but also by content. But it should also be Ukrainian by spirit. Obviously, there will be more discoveries at this Book Arsenal. But they will be caused by the successes of Ukrainian publishers! We are breaking free today from the ‘Russian World’s’ cultural field of force, which gives me pleasure. I am proud of having something to do with this. At the same time, we are losing, unfortunately, the culture of reading. Comparing myself with my children and grandchildren, I must say that the younger generation is bereft of the culture of reading my parents inculcated in me. We often read ‘on the diagonal,’ superficially, or do not read at all. There is already a draft state program, some of whose items deal with the culture of reading. This is, incidentally, one of the main duties of the Ukrainian Institute of the Book which, unfortunately, has not yet begun to function as a full-fledged entity.”