During this French Language and Francophonie Week, our collective “For literature in regional languages at school” is sending Pap Ndiaye, Minister of National Education, a petition that has collected more than 10,000 signatures, including those of many personalities (including Patrick Chamoiseau, Francis Cabrel, Mona Ozouf, Paul Molac, Azouz Begag, Bernard Cerquiglini, etc.).
The French literary heritage is not limited to productions written in the French language. For centuries, poetic, narrative, theatrical and argumentative creation in so-called “regional” languages has been abundant and eminently worthy of interest. It is known and recognized throughout the world.
However, as was the case for women’s literature for a long time, this whole archipelago of written creations is today largely ignored by the school programs of our country. And so by most of the French.
A tradition of contempt dating back to the Ancien Régime
In order to put an end to this injustice, we ask that these programs be reconsidered and officially integrate the teaching of works created by authors who, to be rooted in their “regional” culture, nevertheless have a universal scope.
France is hardly moved by a profound contradiction between its declarations of intent and its real action. It prides itself on possessing world-renowned literature, rewarded again this year by a Nobel Prize, awarded to a woman. It fights tirelessly, on the international scene, for the French language and its literature to be respected and disseminated. She provides all her children with an education that gives an ambitious and deserved place to our literary works.
And yet, in this country so attached to culture and human rights, we can see with dismay that most of our fellow citizens are unaware that there are thousands of literary works written here in languages other than French.
If they don’t know, all right, alas! Because our educational system has never taught them this reality. Heir to a tradition of contempt dating back to the Ancien Régime then theorized during the Revolution by Abbé Grégoire, this system voluntarily and arbitrarily ignores these thousands of works as well as those who wrote them and write them today. again, despite the difficulties they encounter.
Literature victims of a narrow ideology
The “regional” languages themselves, the teaching of which remains subject to uncertainty and precariousness, despite repeated calls to order from international cultural authorities, are disdained by the authorities of this country.
Because the fact that over the years, and not without difficulty, some improvements have been made to their status thanks to a few legislative or regulatory texts does not prevent that too often, due to a lack of means and goodwill on the part of the decision-makers in the field, the practical application of these texts is greatly hampered. A fortiorithe literatures of these authors – Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Creole, Flemish, Occitan, and any other language of France, including of course overseas – are victims of a narrow ideology, exclusive and excluding.
When you find a reference in textbooks, for example to this or that troubadour, it remains marginal and sometimes scientifically erroneous. It is high time that this situation changed.
Basically, nothing prevents – apart from certain influential and entrenched political wills – teaching about these works and authors from being provided to students, over the various cycles, from primary to baccalaureate. . It is perfectly possible to have them studied, in French translation or, better still, in a bilingual version. Tales, poems, novels, plays… Can be approached in the form of extracts or integral works. For example, in the context of pedagogical progress in the French subject or, in high school, in that of specialized teaching “humanities, literature and philosophy”, we already frequently approach texts by authors translated from foreign languages or from Antiquity: it is perfectly possible to include the texts we are talking about, quality works that could dialogue with European literature written in other languages, including French.
Frédéric Mistral, who wrote in Provençal, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
One could also consider that the teachers of each region should give priority to works from that region but, beyond this principle, it would be good for each student to be made aware of the existence of this abundant literary diversity of our country.
If Annie Ernaux is “our” new Nobel Prize for Literature, Frédéric Mistral, in his time, was too. He wrote in Provençal, of which almost all French people have absolutely no knowledge. Let us work to put an end to this aberration. Let us act for the benefit of all, starting with our youth: the opening of programs to our internal diversity is a first step towards a new humanism open to the Other.
Collective for literature in regional languages at school:
Hélène Biu – Lecturer in medieval linguistics and Romance philology at Paris-Sorbonne University
Philippe Blanchet – Professor of Sociolinguistics at Rennes 2 University
Eugène Green – Filmmaker, novelist
Philippe Martel – Historian, Emeritus University Professor, Montpellier
Christiane Metzger – President of Filal, behind the first immersion nursery in the Alsatian language
Pascal Ottavi – Sociolinguist, former university professor, Corsica
Céline Piot – Lecturer in history and didactics of history at the University of Bordeaux (INSPÉ); community activist
Philippe Pratx – Writer; collective coordinator
Jean-Régis Ramsamy – Journalist, author, La Réunion
Marie-Jeanne Verny – Emeritus Professor of Universities in Occitan; community activist