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The Alliance Française, Empire and America

Smith College, Northampton, USA, jgosnell{at}email.smith.edu

The Alliance Française was founded more than a century ago and is the largest non-profit-making cultural institution in the world. Its longstanding mission has been to foster global understanding of the French language and to promote increased dialogue between French and other cultures. Since 1902, the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA has facilitated American access to French language and culture. The American Alliance has been marked by the republican and colonial ethos of the late nineteenth-century organisation. A network of Alliance chapters was established within postcolonial Francophone communities in the United States in the early twentieth century. The institution might be thought of, consequently, as helping to preserve a French cultural heritage dating back four hundred years. By giving voice to different constituencies within the French diasporic family, and by creating spaces for cultural exchange, the Alliance has helped to define the contours of New World Francophone identities.

Key Words: francophonie • French colonisation • French language and culture • Marianne • postcolonialism

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