Daudet, "The Last Class" (was Respects to Joey Ramone, but...)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>ravi wrote:
>  > - i am asking questions, such
>  > as the meaningfulness of saying "jazz is american" in a particular
>  > context (one of pride: america gave the world jazz).
>
>America gave the world the heroism of Geronimo. America gave the world
>Juan Bosch's insight into trusting the U.S. America gave the world the
>tale of the Middle Passage. America gave the world Che. This would be an
>interesting game to think of all the good things America gave the world.
>
>From following this thread I'm beginning to think America should be
>classified with Ottoman Turkey or the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Not a
>nation at all but sort of high-class prison of a miscellany of peoples.
>That would explain why the U.S. has no fiction I know of that dramatizes
>and very deep feeling for "a people." My standard here is a French short
>story -- I forget both author and title -- about an Alsatian school
>teacher, on the last day (after 1870) when French will be the language
>of the school he teaches in. The next day the official language will be
>German.
>
>I can't imagine such a story being written by an American.
>
>Carrol

The French author to whom you refer is Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897). 
The short story in question -- "The Last Class: The Story of a Little 
Alsatian" -- is available at <http://www.bartleby.com/313/4/2.html>.
-- 
Yoshie

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