Francophonia as a World Region?

Abstract

This article tests the hypothesis that Francophonia is a world region. It analyses whether Francophonia stands in fact for all territories with a significant number of Francophones and/or with historical ties to French culture or whether it is primarily a multilateral organisation with more than 50 member states in Europe, Africa, Asia and Northern America. At the same time the problems caused by these two overlapping definitions for research are highlighted. Then, a short overview of the history of relations between France and Francophone territories outside the hexagon since the eighteenth century is given in order to answer another crucial question: Does a common culture of remembrance with appertaining lieux de me´moire bring about a cultural territorialisation which then attributes a novel coherence to geographically incoherent Francopho nia? Compared with ‘classical’ world regions, which are in general equated with continents or other geographically coherent land masses, Francophonia appears as a fragile and inconsistent unit with few resources for the production of homogeneity. Accordingly, the motives of the individual states and societal groups who refer to Francophonia in defining themselves culturally on the international level are highly diverse. At the same time, however, the very case of Francophonia offers the possibility to better understand the new processes of identification influenced by the conditions of a globalising word, of postcolonialism and the mutual penetration of North and South.