Francophone literature is widely taught in the United States and very little in France

…one member is said to have privately grumbled that he would sooner vote for a homosexual than for an Algerian.

Mary Blume has an article about Assia Djebar, the first Muslim, and only the fourth woman, to enter the Académie Française. Among the tidbits that the French are not aware of, is that Francophone literature is widely taught in among the clueless Americans and very little in France.

Francophone literature, which is widely taught in the United States and very little in France, is broader than notions of national identity or than the codified language that the Académie defends. Used as it normally is to define the French of citizens of former colonies, the word "Francophonie" can be subtly racist and patronizing, but to Djebar it ranges more widely to include even such non-French nationals as Samuel Beckett and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Meanwhile, Roger Cohen has a story about a French Muslim in China…