We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
To Spread the French Language Is to Extend the Patrie.
- Authors
HORNE, JANET
- Abstract
The Alliance Française was founded in 1883 to reinforce France's colonial ambitions in Tunisia and throughout the Mediterranean basin. Its focus on language as a tool of empire was unprecedented among the colonial powers. This article revisits that colonial past and examines the Alliance's role as a purveyor of colonial education during the early years of the Third Republic. Its founders envisioned modern France as an imperial republic that would consolidate a republican polity while simultaneously asserting its mounting stature as a world empire. Quickly spreading beyond its colonial matrix, the Alliance Française grew to build a vast cultural network abroad. This article examines the complex and often contradictory processes that led from colonial strategies of dominance to the development of modern French cultural relations abroad. It argues, too, for a more comprehensive inclusion of nineteenth-century imperial expansion within the historical narrative of the rise of modern French cultural diplomacy.
- Subjects
FRANCE; AFRICA; ALLIANCE francaise; FRENCH colonies; FRENCH language; COLONIAL education; FRENCH occupation of Tunisia, 1881-1956; FONCIN, Pierre; CULTURAL relations; NINETEENTH century; HISTORY; SOCIOLINGUISTICS; MANNERS &; customs
- Publication
French Historical Studies, 2017, Vol 40, Issue 1, p95
- ISSN
0016-1071
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1215/00161071-3686068