Cajuns, the descendants of the Acadian diaspora begun in 1755, chose to live a largely isolated existence in Louisiana until elements in the nineteenth century began concerted efforts to assimilate the Cajuns. By the beginnings of the twentieth century, the dual challenges of enforced schooling and the prohibition of spoken French affected the Cajun sense of pride.
Around the same time, outsiders (satirists from Louisiana who were not of Cajun descent) used the Cajun dialect, in publications and on the radio, to humorously skewer Louisiana politics. Over the last century, Cajun dialect humor has evolved along specific lines that have closely followed the evolution of the Cajun cultural identity. Cajun dialect humor was associated with outsiders and would remain that way until the 1960s. The process of reclamation has been a long and arduous journey, one that has prompted internal struggles leading to negotiations within the community over competing identity narratives. Even though Cajun humorists have supplanted the original satirists in performing the ethnic humor, these negotiations have often placed the practitioners of the dialect humor in the position of beggars at the gate, apologizing for stepping outside the boundaries set by self-appointed gatekeepers, and forcing them to amend their performances to fit certain acceptable guidelines.
The inside/outside duality of Cajun dialect humor led to a showdown within the community, allowing gatekeepers to set parameters on what style of humor would be tolerated and which would not. The dialect humor was divided into the old, unacceptable style and the new, established style. In this work, I am arguing for a return of the old style of humor by demonstrating its place in Cajun history. By restoring the old with the new style of humor, I believe this will strengthen the overall comic product and ensure the future of Cajun dialect humor.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-07102007-134324 |
| Date | 12 July 2007 |
| Creators | Richardson, Debrah Royer |
| Contributors | Femi Euba, Craig E. Colten, Michael Tick, Carolyn Ware, Leslie A. Wade |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-07102007-134324/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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