French Language Nationalism

Michael Kimmelman's article in the New York Times explores the most recent resurgence of French nationalism surrounding the French language. In the last few months, President Sarkozy has tried to appeal to conservative voters by reminding them of his ideological support for "l’exception culturelle," or cultural exceptionalism. As Kimmelman explains, this technically refers to parts of French culture like music and television, which the French government can continue to subsidize without international penalties. However, it was evolved to refer to the broader idea of maintaining a distinct Francophone culture. Conservatives in France increasingly denounce the willingness of popular culture and diplomats to use English.

However, as Kimmelman notes, the idea that the utility and scope of French-speaking is decreasing assumes a very limited view. French is in fact spoken by 200 million people. But a majority of these speakers are in Africa and only 65 million of them are French. Kimmelman goes on to detail several instances a writer with a foreign name was assumed to be unable to write well in French without any true assessment of his abilities. He also discusses the discomfort of many French people over the decreasing control they have over French-speaking culture. French was traditionally used as a language of indoctrination and superiority over colonized people. This legacy explains why some people in Africa still criticize writers like Algerian Yasmina Khadra. He writes his novels in French to reach a wider audience and because he likes the language. He does not feel speaking French necessarily aligns him with France.

This story again highlights the intense political and cultural associations people make with languages. However, it also shows that colonial languages like French and English can often be willfully adopted outside of their countries of origin. In this post-colonialist situation, a language's association with its original culture and country will likely remain for a long time. However, the accompanying ideology and culture of the country of origin can easily disappear. This situation confuses the traditional notion of language being intricately associated with the culture of its speakers.

References:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/arts/25abroad.html?src=me&ref=general