The Franco-American War on Culture

Paper Summary:

The paper presents a study on imperialism with a focus on France and her battle against English as an international language. The paper shows how France's battle against the use of English as the main language of the world is essentially a fight against globalization and the loss of French culture. The paper examines French cinema and its war against Hollywood.

From the Paper:

"On March 23rd, 2006, during a meeting in Brussels, Jacques Chirac, the President of the French Republic, followed by two of his ministers, went out of the room when Ernest-Antoine Seillieres, the boss of the European bosses and former boss of the MEDEF, started delivering a speech in English. However bizarre or ludicrous this attitude may seem to many, whether French or not, it indicates something important as far as language is concerned. It reveals the omnipresence of the English language: even though translation was available - for, in the European Union, all languages of the member-states are official - a Frenchman chose to express himself in a foreign tongue. Why didn't he stick to his native language?"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Creton, Laurent, Economie du Cinema, Perspectives Strategiques, Paris : Nathan, c1994.
• Graddol, David, Leith, Dick and Swan, Joan, History, Diversity and Change, London: Routledge in association with the Open University, 1996.
• Grazia, Victoria de, Irresistible Empire: America's advance through twentieth-century Europe, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005.
• D'Hugues, Philippe, l'Envahisseur americain, Hollywood contre Billancourt, Lausanne : Favre, c1999.
• Kidd, William and Reynolds, Sian, Contemporary French Cultural Studies, London: Arnold, 2000.

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