Article ID: CBB001220334

Den fransktalande rasen. Frankofonins fader Onésime Reclus och l'Organisation internationale de la francophonie (2008)

unapi

Nordblad, Julia (Author)


Lychnos
Pages: 65-92


Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: Translated title: [A Francophone Race. The Father of Francophonie, Onésime Reclus and l'Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie]
Language: Swedish

A francophone race. The father of francophonie, Onésime Reclus and l'Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. By Julia Nordblad. In this essay, it is suggested that the prevalent benign interpretation of the 19th century French geographer Onésime Reclus serves to legitimize the historiography of the modern institution of francophonie, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, OIF. The term francophonie was coined in 1880 and was picked up in the 1960s by Léopold Sédar Senghor in his call for an international organisation of French-speaking countries. Despite the fact that Reclus is often mentioned as being one of founding fathers of francophonie, attention has only briefly been paid to his writings. The prevalent interpretation of Reclus' writings in the literature on francophonie suggests that he was radical in his rejection of the racist ideas of his time. Onésime Reclus' writings however contain a tension between seeing man as determined by an acquired and hence contingent language on one hand, and a rather biologistic and deterministic approach, according to which origin and race are decisive, on the other. Two different backgrounds are discussed in order to contextualize a modified interpretation of Reclus' writings. First, the emerging philology or discipline of comparative linguistics of the 19th century, which sheds light on Reclus' idea of language as a manifestation of a people's supremacy or inferiority. This perspective indicates that his concept of language sometimes should be understood as a race-specific property. Second, the politico-linguistic discussion during the French revolution, especially the linguistic poll and political measures suggested by Abbé Grégoire, is offered as a background to the universalistic aspects of the concept of francophonie. These two backgrounds establish links between Reclus' ideas and the linguistic-racial thought of his time. It also situates his work in a tradition of ideas legitimizing the dissemination of the French language by the values supposedly transmitted by it.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001220334/

Similar Citations

Book Monika Wegmann; (2016)
Language in Space: The Cartographic Representation of Dialects (/isis/citation/CBB780577388/)

Book Barriga Villanueva, Rebeca; Martín Butragueño, Pedro; (2010)
Historia sociolingüística de México (/isis/citation/CBB001211997/)

Book Bronckart, Jean-Paul; Bulea, Ecaterina; Bota, Cristian; (2010)
Le projet de Ferdinand de Saussure (/isis/citation/CBB001211663/)

Book L. S. Jacyna; (2008)
Medicine and Modernism: A Biography of Henry Head (/isis/citation/CBB939968179/)

Book Jacyna, L. S.; (2000)
Lost Words: Narratives of Language and the Brain, 1825-1926 (/isis/citation/CBB000110678/)

Article Swiggers, Pierre; (2009)
David Zeisberger's Description of Delaware Morphology (1827) (/isis/citation/CBB001211626/)

Article Joseph, John E.; (2010)
Saussure's Notes of 1881--1885 on Inner Speech, Linguistic Signs and Language Change (/isis/citation/CBB001211621/)

Article Alter, Stephen G.; (2007)
Darwin and the Linguists: The Coevolution of Mind and Language, Part 1. Problematic Friends (/isis/citation/CBB000830393/)

Thesis Luke Anthony McMullan; (2021)
The Rise of Philology in Britain: Explaining the Progress of Knowledge, 1750–1859 (/isis/citation/CBB120032710/)

Article Bechraoui, Mohamed-Fadhel; (2013)
Les premières grammaires françaises à l'usage des Persans (/isis/citation/CBB001211988/)

Article Alter, Stephen G.; (2007)
Race, Language, and Mental Evolution in Darwin's Descent of Man (/isis/citation/CBB000772495/)

Authors & Contributors
Alter, Stephen G.
Jacyna, L. S.
McMullan, Luke Anthony
Wegmann, Monika
B. Josh Doty
Leblanc, Richard
Concepts
Linguistics; philology
Language and languages
Evolution
Neurosciences
Human evolution
Missionaries and missions
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
18th century
Places
Germany
France
England
Tanzania (Tanganyika, Zanzibar)
United States
Mexico
Institutions
Vienna Circle
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment