Louisiana Creole Literature: A Historical Study

by Catharine Savage Brosman

Overview

Louisiana Creole Literature is a broad-ranging critical reading of belles lettres--in both French and English--connected to and generally produced by the distinctive Louisiana Creole peoples, chiefly in the southeastern part of the state. The book covers primarily the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the flourishing period during which the term Creole had broad and contested cultural reference in Louisiana.

The study consists in part of literary history and biography. When available and appropriate, each discussion--arranged chronologically--provides pertinent personal information on authors, as well as publishing facts. Readers will find also summaries and evaluation of key texts, some virtually unknown, others of difficult access. Brosman illuminates the biographies and works of Kate Chopin, Lafcadio Hearn, George Washington Cable, Grace King, and Adolphe Duhart, among others. In addition, she challenges views that appear to be skewed regarding canon formation. The book places emphasis on poetry and fiction, reaching from early nineteenth-century writing through the twentieth century to selected works by poets still writing in the early twenty-first century. A few plays are treated also, especially by Victor Séjour. Louisiana Creole Literature examines at length the writings of important Francophone figures, and certain Anglophone novelists likewise receive extended treatment. Since much of nineteenth-century Louisiana literature was transnational, the book considers Creole-based works which appeared in Paris as well as those published locally.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496852137
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	05/28/2024
Edition description:	Paperback
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Catharine Savage Brosman is professor emerita of French at Tulane University. She is author of Mississippi Poets: A Literary Guide and coauthor (with Olivia McNeely Pass) of Louisiana Poets: A Literary Guide, both published by University Press of Mississippi. She has also authored numerous books of French literary history and criticism; three volumes of nonfiction prose; fifteen collections of poetry; and a collection of short fiction, An Aesthetic Education and Other Stories.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Chapter 1 Louisiana and Its Population: The Historical Background 3

Chapter 2 Features of Early Louisiana Literature and the Cultural Milieu 17

Chapter 3 Père Rouquette and Other Early Francophone Poets 28

Chapter 4 Mercier and Other Novelists Born in the Early Nineteenth Century 45

Chapter 5 Mid-Nineteenth-Century Immigrant Francophone Authors 57

Chapter 6 Fiction and Drama by Mid-Nineteenth-Century Free People of Color 68

Chapter 7 Poetry by Mid-Nineteenth-Century Free People of Color 80

Chapter 8 Cable and Hearn 93

Chapter 9 Late Francophone Figures: de la Houssaye, du Quesnay, Dessommes 104

Chapter 10 Kate Chopin 121

Chapter 11 King, Stuart, and Others 131

Chapter 12 Some Twentieth-Century Louisiana Prose Writers 149

Chapter 13 Louisiana Creole Poets of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries 168

Notes 189

Selected Bibliography 231

Index 241

Editorial Reviews

"Brosman's mastery of history and biography, her summaries of literary texts, and her commentary have comprehensiveness, depth, and originality. Her study is a touchstone for those scholars, critics, and readers who wish to understand the depths, complexities, and pleasures of Creole literature."

—Maurice W. DuQuesnay (University of Louisiana at Lafayette), Louisiana History

"Louisiana Creole Literature: A Historical Study is a well-documented and engrossing scholarly account that analyzes and does much to valorize the longstanding multicultural and multilingual literary history of this unique American state."

-Eric Sellin, professor emeritus of French and Francophone literature at Tulane University, New Orleans

"We have waited long for just such a book, and Professor Brosman has rewarded our waiting more than handsomely. Scorning tendentious literary 'theory' in favor of hard scholarship and sensitive close reading, she has opened a varied and vital Francophone tradition in American letters to future systematic study, at the same time shedding new light on Anglophone 'interlopers' like Cable, King, and Chopin. Our study of American literature, especially in the South, will never again be quite so insular. This is literary history and criticism of a high order, foundational in the fullest sense."

-William Bedford Clark, professor of English at Texas A&M University

From the Publisher