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Contemporary Developments in Corsican Culture and Language



Author(s)

Hideki Hasegawa

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2014.05.001

Yokohama National University, Japan

Corsican language has been in decline over the last 250 years (following Corsica’s acquisition by France in 1768) and it is now listed as “definitely endangered” on UNESCO’s (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) map of the “World’s Languages in Danger”, published in 2009. Despite this situation, a reverse trend began in the 1960s, when some cultural revival movements appeared, and the language has received a degree of support from the Corsican, French and European governments. These interventions were successful in stimulating a variety of cultural practices that are strongly linked to the Corsican Language. After examining examples drawn from Corsican, comics, cartoons, films and drama, the paper will discuss the significance of new Corsican cultural practices for the language (and island society in general), and the role of local, national and supranational cultural and art policies in the contemporary Corsican experience.

Corsican language, corsican arts, art policies