Negotiating the Mainstream:
Living in French in America
Barry Jean Ancelet
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Comments from Deborah Jenson
University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of French and Italian
Wednesday, October 27, 2004, 4:00 pm
1418 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive
Download poster
Abstract
French Louisiana: What does this design ation mean today? Is French alive and well in Cajun country? What are its roots? What is its future?
This talk will briefly review the history of French as a language of everyday life and government in Louisiana in the 19th century (the Creole planter society that supported a small but thriving Louisiana French literary scene and French enjoying an equal status in newspapers, legal proceeding's and daily commerce) to the conformist English pressures brought about by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, statehood in 1812, the arrival of Anglo-Midwestern American farmers in the 1880s and of Anglo-American oil workers and developers from Texas, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania in the early 1900s. It will then pass briefly by the nationalistic fervor of World War I, the relief efforts that accompanied the great flood of 1927, and the agricultural and economic depressions of the 1920s and 1930s. This historical introduction will include references to other French-language communities in America such as those in Missouri, Illinois and New England.
As Cajun and black Creole children were humiliated and punished in schools for speaking the language of their ancestors, both groups were convinced that the French dialects they spoke were cultural, social, political and economic liabilities. The talk will focus on this treatment of Cajuns and black Creoles following World War II that led to current efforts to preserve and restore French as a valuable linguistic resource in Louisiana. What came to be known as the Louisiana French renaissance movement was led by the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL), a state agency created in 1968. Since then, French has returned to the schools, most impressively in the immersion programs that are once again producing a small but growing generation of young Louisiana French speakers. It is these schools that offer an optimistic answer to the question: Can Cajun heritage and the French language survive in the Louisiana of today?
This series is free and open to the public. It is made possible with generous support from the Schoenleber Foundation.
|
