EAN: 9781433109164

ONE STORY OF ACADEMIA - MOUSSA TRAORE GEBUNDEN

One Story of Academia: Race Lines and the Rhetoric of Distinction through the Académie
française explores how the word race was historically linked to kings and feudal lords as a
sign of elite social distinction  and how the Académie française has embodied that type of
distinction in France since its establishment in 1635. Meant to be an undeclared  scholarly 
«mysterious» companion to the French monarchy  the Académie created a powerful attraction for
the highest classes  inspiring critics of different stripes  considered to be the highest
expression of Frenchness  it excluded different groups based on class  gender  race ethnicity 
religion  ideology  and nationality. The self-proclaimed heir to ancient Greek and Roman
scholarship  the Académie also claims to represent Europe  the West  and even Humanity. However
as an academic institution  it has experienced «dialectical» arguments between traditional
(feudal) elitism  and scholarly elitism as both sought to define French culture in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. «Trustees of taste» and promoters of purity  the
Académiciens and their strong supporters followed the troubled evolution of the word race and
of social distinction. Borrowing from inter-European ethnic issues and nationalism  subscribers
to the growing «racial» distinction had the features of the colonized analyzed with the French
and by extension  European and Western sense of social distinction in mind. Consequently the
colonized ended up at the lowest end of the social scale  in turn  this placement explained the
application of European feudal norms of exploitation on the colonies and created the more
controversial and dreaded concept of «racism». This book highlights how the significance of
language in the French sense of race - as superiority - is at the heart of the Académie
française.

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