Acadie(s) divergente(s) : langue, identité et poésie en Louisiane et au Canada maritime

ABSTRACT

The Acadian Deportation, or Grand dérangement, resulted in the Acadian population's dispersal throughout much of the Atlantic world. The surviving Acadians and their descendants were scattered to France, across the East Coast of North America, the Antilles, and elsewhere. Despite varying degrees of cultural and linguistic assimilation, Acadian identity today is particularly prevalent in the maritime provinces of Canada and in Louisiana. This article examines diverging notions of Acadian identity in Canada and Louisiana through the lens of contemporary poetry.

As the number of native “Cajun French” speakers declines, French language seems to play a less important role in the identity paradigm. Nevertheless, a literary movement exists whose adherents insist on the French spelling cadien and argue that French is essential to Cajun identity. However, these writers go largely unnoticed by the mass of predominantly Anglophone Cajuns. The linguistic reality differs sharply with Acadian communities of Maritime Canada, where the French language has proven to be a sine qua non of Acadian identity. In focusing on cultural identity in Louisiana this article shows how Cajun and Acadian notions of identity differ in popular and poetic discourse.

KEYWORDS:

• Louisiana
• Acadia
• poetry
• Canada
• Francophone
• identity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nathan Rabalais

Nathan Rabalais is Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies at William and Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia). His research and teaching interests focus on the literatures and cultures of Francophone North America. His book of original poetry in French, Le Hantage: un ouvrage de souvenance, was recently published by Éditions Tintamarre (2018).