This study presents in-depth analyses of folktales from the oral tradition of French and Creole Louisiana. The region’s folklore is a unique tradition formed from the confluence of diverse elements following a number of significant population movements to Louisiana. The French and Spanish colonization, the slave trade, the Acadian deportation, and the Saint-Domingue Revolution are discussed in some detail. Through comparative analyses of a corpus of Louisiana folktales and their analogues from Acadia, France, and West Africa, my research demonstrates how motifs, characters, and moral values have been adapted over time to the sociocultural context of Louisiana. Paul Zumthor’s theory of false reiterability is employed to explain these mutations in oral narrative. I suggest that several instances of cultural trauma – slavery, the Grand dérangement, and linguistic inferiority resulting from English-only education - resulted in a cultural renegotiation among Louisiana’s French and Creole communities that is reflected in the region’s oral tradition. The three principal chapters each examine an important figure of Louisiana’s folklore: the animal trickster, the fool (Jean-le-Sot), and the Master Thief. A general tendency of increased prestige associated with the trickster figure can be observed in Louisiana’s folklore. Moreover, Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the carnivalesque is used to explain the subversion of established power structure accomplished by the trickster. By framing Louisiana as a space of cultural exchange and creolization, this study places the region in a larger context of the francophone world, including Africa, the Caribbean, and the French Atlantic. / 1 / Nathan J. Rabalais