American Triumphalism and the “Offensive” Defensiveness of the French

Drawing from a variety of disciplines, this article examines some of the tensions reflected and reproduced by the global hegemony of English. It does so by way of critical interpretation of accounts of the global spread of English published in five American-owned prestige press publications. Part of a 275-text data pool, the texts analyzed in this article wrap the story of the global hegemony of English around Anglo-Franco competition and rivalry. They embrace what the author calls the French Foil narrative, or a story about the global rise of English that pits English against French, the United States against France, and Americans against “the” French. The story told is one in which English is seen as triumphing over French because of its superior status as a popular language. This antielitist plot relies heavily on the consummate antagonist of American populism, the French intellectual.