According to the news headquarters of the 34th Tehran International Book Fair, a meaning of cultural diplomacy has been introduced as bargaining to reach goals that unite human societies. Achieving these goals is based on common cultural factors between societies. As a rule, countries with a richer culture will have the ability to absorb more. “Book” is an important factor and medium in the dialogue between cultures, and the publishing industry of any country with a long and rich cultural history is a place for these dialogues.
Tehran International Book Fair, which we are on the verge of its 34th period, can be considered an important factor in cultural diplomacy because it is the result of Iran's rich publishing industry. For this reason, the news staff of this period of the exhibition decided to ask about the Tehran International Book Fair in a conversation with some of the world's great intellectuals and scholars, and it can be said that the goodness of these conversations is the introduction of this fair to these thinkers.
In this respect, Stuart Sim, professor of English literature at Northumbria University, in response to the question about the importance of books in ‘cultural diplomacy’, said, “I certainly do feel that books are extremely important in cultural diplomacy and will continue to be so, even in an internet-dominated age.”
He adds that as long as translations are available, then the literature of other nations opens up their culture to us in an easy-to-access way.
“I am a great fan of book festivals and have attended many over the course of my career, but I am afraid I do not know enough about the Tehran Book Festival to comment all that helpfully on it,” professor of English literature at Northumbria University, told the news headquarters of the 34th Tehran International Book Fair.
Professor Sim added that it does sound like a very worthy event, however, book festivals in general deserve all the public support that they can get.
The 34th Tehran International Book Fair with the slogan “the future is to be read” started on the 10th of May and will continue until the 20th of May 2023 in the Mosque of Imam Khomeini and simultaneously on Ketab.ir.
MNA/