Malgré la diversité des territoires qui constituent la région caribéenne, sur le plan linguistique, ils ont en commun une même culture, celle de la créolité. Dans cette perspective, cette étude se propose d’étudier la synergie linguistique qui ressortirait d’une comparaison des proverbes créoles de la Caraïbe francophone et anglophone. Outre la question, parfois controversée, de l’origine des proverbes, l’objectif principal sera de trouver les convergences et les superpositions, tous les rapprochements entre les proverbes, le rôle joué par la littérature dans leur conservation et leur transmission intra et inter-linguistique et d’observer les modifications qu’ils ont pu subir. L’étude de l’impact de la mondialisation sur la traduction des textes de la Caraïbe, qui appartiennent à une tradition d’oralité, permettra de comprendre les phénomènes de transmission. Loin de se situer en opposition à la théorie Bermanienne sur la destruction des réseaux vernaculaires, ce travail visera à démontrer que la traduction des proverbes créoles dans le cadre même de la créolité offre justement la solution la plus en adéquation dans sa dimension culturelle, celle qui permet de les maintenir dans leur territorialité. / Despite the diversity of the Caribbean territories, they all share the same culture: Creoleness. In light of this, the present research proposes to study the linguistic synergy that is evident in a comparative study of Creole proverbs from the francophone and Anglophone Caribbean. Apart from the controversial issue of the origin of these proverbs, the main aim is to find the convergent points as well as any relationships between the proverbs, the role that literature plays in their preservation and their intra- and inter-linguistic transmission. A study of the impact of globalization on the translation of Caribbean texts, which are a part of oral tradition, will help to understand the phenomena underlining their transmission. Not aiming to contradict Berman’s theory on the destruction of vernacular links, this work will try to show that translating Creole proverbs in the context of Creoleness offers the best possible solution in light of cultural and regional factors.

In restaurants, dance halls, and travel brochures around the world, the word “Cajun” brings to mind a plethora of significations related to flavorful foods, exotic language, and geographical affiliation with South Louisiana— but what exactly is “Cajun” anyway? How has “Cajun” emerged as a community, culture, and identity? Who are the Cajuns today? This thesis rereads “Cajun history” in the larger context of Créole Louisiana, tracing issues of class, language, colonization, racialization, and modernization from Colonial Louisiana through 2020. This is accomplished with the aid of literary analyses, including authors such as Cable, Chopin, de la Houssaye, and Arceneaux, films such as Louisiana Story, and folk stereotype humor in the form of Boudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes. The thesis introduces postcolonial theoretical frameworks of mimicry, fixity, hybridity and créolization as methods for understanding the oft-forgotten historical relationality of identities, cultures, and languages in Southern Louisiana. In the 1970s Caribbean writers such as Édouard Glissant put forward the unfinished and unpredictable creativity of the historical, geographical, and anthropological space of Creole society and culture from the Antillean point of view. In a similar move, my introduction of the theory of creolization to Louisiana history seeks to wrestle back the power of Acadie or even France as the fundamental matrix of non-Anglophone culture, history, and identity in Louisiana. Instead, the complex perspective of Creolité threatens the stability of these origin myths, revitalizing our concept of history, culture, and identity in the localized touchstone of South Louisiana, while understanding that this localized perspective is always already an ongoing production at the borders of culture(s) in contact. Ultimately, I argue that Southern Louisiana since colonization has consistently been a site of créolization, destabilizing claims of Acadianness as the sole figurehead for francophone or franco-créolophone identity in the region. / Graduate / 2021-09-19