What is French literature?
<!--{{Portal|name=French literature|break=yes}}--> <!--{{Cleanup|date=June 2007}}--> <!--{{French literature}}--> <!--:''This article is a general introduction to French literature. For detailed information on French literature in specific historic periods, see the separate historical articles in the template to the right.''--> '''French literature''' is the [[literature]] of [[France]]. It also includes literature that is written in [[French language|French]], even if the writer is not from France. There are countries besides France where French is also spoken. These countries include [[Belgium]], [[Switzerland]], [[Canada]], [[Senegal]], [[Algeria]], and [[Morocco]]. Works that are written in French but not from France are called [[Francophone literature]]. ==History of French literature== The [[French language]] grew out of [[Latin]]. French is a [[Romance languages|Romance language]], related to other languages like [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[Italian language|Italian]]. French was also influenced by the [[Celtic language|Celtic]] and [[Frankish language|Frankish]] languages. <!--Beginning in the [[11th century]], literature written in medieval French was one of the oldest [[Vernacular literature|vernacular (non-Latin) literatures]] in western Europe and it became a key source of literary themes in the [[Middle Ages]] across the continent. Although the European prominence of French literature was eclipsed in part by vernacular literature in Italy in the [[14th century]], literature in France in the [[16th century]] underwent a major creative evolution, and through the political and artistic programs of the [[Ancien Régime]], French literature came to dominate European letters in the [[17th century]]. In the [[18th century]], French became the literary [[lingua franca]] and diplomatic language of western Europe (and, to a certain degree, in America), and French letters have had a profound impact on all European and American literary traditions while at the same time being heavily influenced by