acadmie franaise

The Acadmie franaise, or French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Acadmie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution, it was restored in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte. It is the oldest of the five acadmies of the Institut de France. The Acadmie consists of forty members, known as immortels (immortals). New members are elected by the members of the Acadmie itself. Academicians hold office for life, but they may be removed for misconduct. The body has the task of acting as an official authority on the language; it is charged with publishing an official dictionary of the language. Its rulings, however, are only advisory, not binding on either the public or the government.

History

The Acadmie's origins lie in an informal group that met to discuss literature during the late 1620s and early 1630s. Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister of France, later took the body under his protection. In anticipation of the formal creation of the body, several members were appointed in 1634. On 22 February 1635, at Richelieu's urging, King Louis XIII granted letters patent formally establishing the body; the letters patent were registered at the Parlement de Paris on 10 July 1637. The Acadmie franaise was responsible for the regulation of French grammar, orthography, and literature. During the French Revolution, the National Convention suppressed all royal academies, including the Acadmie franaise. In 1792, the election of new members to replace those who died was prohibited; in 1793, the academies were themselves abolished. They were all replaced in 1795 by a single body called the Institut de France, or Institute of France. Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul, decided to restore the former academies, but only as "classes" or divisions of the Institut de France. The second class of the Institut was responsible for the French language, and corresponded to the former Acadmie franaise. When King Louis XVIII came to the throne in 1816, each class regained the title of "Acadmie"; accordingly, the second class of the Institut became the Acadmie franaise. Since 1816, the existence of the Acadmie franaise has been uninterrupted. The President of France is the "protector" or patron of the Acadmie. Cardinal Richelieu originally fulfilled this role; upon his death in 1642, Pierre Sguier, the Chancellor of France, succeeded him. King Louis XIV took over the function when Sguier died in 1672; since then, the French head of state has always served as the Acadmie's protector. From 1672 to 1805, the official meetings of the Acadmie were held at the Louvre; since 1805, the Acadmie franaise has met at the Collge des Quatre Nations (now known as the Palais de l'Institut). The remaining academies of the Institut de France also meet at the Palais de l'Institut.

Membership

The Acadmie franaise has forty seats, each of which is assigned a separate number. Members are known as les immortels (the immortals) because of the device, l'immortalit, that appears on the official seal of the body granted by Cardinal Richelieu. One of the immortels is chosen by his or her counterparts to as the Acadmie's Permanent Secretary; the Permanent Secretary serves for life, or until resignation. The Acadmie, furthermore, may appoint former Permanent Secretary to the office of Honorary Permanent Secretary. The most senior member, by date of election, is the Acadmie's Dean. New members are elected by the Acadmie itself (the original members were appointed). When a seat falls vacant, one may apply to the Secretary if one wishes to become a candidate. Alternatively, the existing members may nominate other candidates. A candidate is elected only if he or she receives the votes of a majority of members voting; the quorum is twenty members. If no candidate receives an absolute majority, another election must be held at a later date. The election is valid only if the protector of the Acadmie, the President of France, grants his approval. The President's approbation, however, is only a formality. Then, the new member is installed at a sitting of the Acadmie. The new member must deliver a speech to the Acadmie, in which he or she customarily eulogises the member being replaced. Eight days thereafter, a public reception is held, during which the new member makes a speech thanking his counterparts for his election. Members remain in the Acadmie for life. However, the body may expel an academician for grave misconduct. The first expulsion came in 1638, when Auger de Molon de Granier was removed for theft. The most recent expulsions came at the end of the Second World War; Abel Bonnard, Abel Hermant, Philippe Ptain, and Charles Maurras were all excluded for their association with the Vichy regime. In total, twenty members have been expelled from the Acadmie. There have been a total of 708 immortels, of whom four have been women (the first woman, Marguerite Yourcenar, was elected in 1980). Individuals who are not citizens of France may be, and have been, elected. Moreover, although most academicians are writers, one need not be a member of the literary profession to become a member. The Acadmie has included numerous politicians, lawyers, scientists, historians, philosophers, and senior Roman Catholic clergymen. Five French heads of state (Adolphe Thiers, Raymond Poincar, Paul Deschanel, Philippe Ptain, and Valry Giscard d'Estaing), and one foreign head of state (Lopold Sdar Senghor of Senegal) have been members. Other famous academicians include Louis, duc de Broglie, Alexandre Dumas, fils, Victor Hugo, Charles, baron de Montesquieu, Louis Pasteur, Henri Poincar, and Voltaire. Many notable French writers have not become members of the Acadmie franaise. In 1855, the writer Arsne Houssaye devised the expression "forty-first seat" for deserving individuals who were never elected to the Acadmie, because their candidacies were rejected, because they were never candidates, or because they died before appropriate vacancies arose. Notable figures in French literature who never became academicians include Honor de Balzac, Ren Descartes, Denis Diderot, Gustave Flaubert, Molire, Marcel Proust, and mile Zola. The official uniform of an academician is known as l'habit vert, or the green habit. The habit vert, worn at the Acadmie's foreign ceremonies, was first adopted during Napoleon Bonaparte's reorganisation of the Institut de France. It consists of a long black coat and black feathered bicorne hat, each embroidered in dark green, together with black trousers or skirt. Furthermore, members receive a ceremonial sword (l'pe). Academicians who are women or clergymen do not receive swords.

Functions

The Acadmie is France's official authority on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of the French language, although its recommendations carry no legal power. Sometimes, even governmental authorities disregard the Acadmie's rulings. The Acadmie publishes the official dictionary of the French language, known as the Dictionnaire de l'Acadmie franaise. A special Commission composed of several (but not all) of the members of the Acadmie undertakes the compilation of the work. The Acadmie has completed eight editions of the dictionary, which have been published in 1694, 1718, 1740, 1762, 1798, 1835, 1878, and 1935. It continues work on the ninth edition, of which the first volume (A to Enzyme) appeared in 1992, and the second volume (ocne to Mappemonde) in 2000. In 1778, the Acadmie attempted to compile an "historical dictionary" of the French language; this idea, however, was later abandoned, the work never progressing past the letter A. As French culture has come under increasing pressure with the widespread availability of English media, the Acadmie has tried to prevent the anglicisation of the French language. For example, the Acadmie has replaced loanwords from English (such as walkman and software) with French equivalents (baladeur and logiciel, respectively). Moreover, the Acadmie has worked to modernise French spellings and orthography. The body, however, has sometimes been criticised for behaving in an excessively conservative fashion. A recent controversy involved the creation of feminine equivalents for the names of several professions. For instance, in 1997, Lionel Jospin's government advocated using the feminine noun "la ministre" to refer to a female minister. The Acadmie, however, insisted on the traditional usage of the masculine noun, "le ministre," for a minister of either gender.

Prizes

The Acadmie franaise is responsible for awarding several different prizes in various fields (including literature, poetry, theatre, cinema, history, and translation). This function is relatively recent for the Acadmie; almost all of the prizes have been created in the twentieth century, and only two prizes were awarded before 1780. In total, the Acadmie awards over sixty prizes, most of them annually. The most important prize is the grand prix de la francophonie, which was instituted in 1986, and is funded by the governments of France, Canada, Monaco, and Morocco. Other important prizes include the grand prix de littrature (for a literary work), the grand prix du roman (for a novel), the grand prix de posie (for poetry), the grand prix de philosophie (for a philosophical work), and the grand prix Gobert (for a work on French history).