The rhetoric of induction at the French academy

Abstract

This essay examines two interdependent speeches, the remerciement and the réponse delivered by an inductee into the Académie Française and by the acting director. The inductee eulogizes the deceased member whose seat he/she will occupy and the acting director welcomes the new member and fills the empty seat through rhetoric of rebirth with the inductee. Taken together, the remerciement and the réponse constitute an extended eulogistic form which preserves the Académie by rehearsing its values and embodying those values in both speeches.