Since France and the French language are demonstrably prominent in a variety of significant global initiatives, I believe that there is widespread agreement about the important role that France continues to play in the world. It brings strengths to international affairs and serves as a counterpoise to what Claude Hagège, in his recent book Contre la pensée unique, sees as the unhealthy predominance of English and its commercial values. Finally, and most significant to North-American francophones and francophiles, a strong program of French studies contributes to our linguistic, cultural, and literary enlightenment.

Interroger la nature de l’interaction entre la scène et la coulisse dans la première grande tragédie de Racine, c’est remarquer tout de suite l’opposition radicale entre la nudité scénique relative de la pièce et son hors-scène excessivement chargé de pays, de structures, de gens et même de spectres.