Francophone origins
The 17th century saw the arrival of René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle (1643-1687) and the following century welcomed the introduction of printing and then of the local press (Le Moniteur de la Louisiane, 1794). We could also remember the poems of the philanthropist of Nantes origin Julien Poydras or the tragedy L'Héroïsme de Poucha-Houmma (to be read online at the Tintamarre library) published by Leblanc de Villeneufve in 1814. Nevertheless, we must quickly come to terms with the fact that Louisiana literature did not really take off until the middle of the 19th century, perhaps thanks to Alexandre Latil, stricken with leprosy at the age of 15, who wrote his verses in the refuge he had found in the bayou and published them in 1841 under the title Les Éphémères, and undoubtedly thanks to Victor Séjour (1817-1874), who published in 1837 the earliest work by an African-American author: the short story The Mulatto, which denounced slavery. Although somewhat forgotten today, this author paved the way for Armand Lanusse (1810-1868), a free French-speaking slave who became involved in the struggle for equal civil rights, launched in 1843 L'Album littéraire, a journal for young people who loved literature, and two years later collected Les Cenelles, a " selection of indigenous poetry " to which he contributed. The Indian culture was highlighted by two brothers, Dominique Rouquette, born in 1810, and Adrien, three years his junior. Having grown up in Louisiana but having gone into exile for their studies, the first will sing the nostalgia of his native country in Les Meschacébéennes (from the name of a tribe) published in Paris in 1839, the second will finally break with his environment to go and live with the Choctaws in 1859, eighteen years after having published his most famous text: Les Savanes
. It is really in the aftermath of the Civil War that a literature that could be described as national was developed. This, in any case, benefited the French language, which was supported by La Renaissance louisianaise and then L'Athénée louisianais, founded by Alfred Mercier in 1875, which opened their columns to writers. Mercier also wrote essays(Étude sur la langue créole en Louisiane, 1880) and novels(L'Habitation Saint-Ybars, 1881) with a success comparable to that of his female counterpart Sidonie de la Houssaye (1820-1894), who began writing after her husband's death and continued to do so until her own death. Her already important work(Contes d'une grand-mère louisianaise, Pouponne et Balthazar...) will be completed by the posthumous publication of her trétalogie Les Quarteronnes de La Nouvelle-Orléans.American-language literature
Although French-language literature experienced a certain effervescence from 1870 onwards, it began to wane at the beginning of the 20th century due to the lack of a sufficiently large readership. However, this did not mean that Louisiana's literary world was in decline, since American-language writers were making their mark on the scene, benefiting from the appeal of the region's past as well as its great cultural diversity. At least three names should be mentioned, George Washington Cable, Grace King and Kate Chopin. Born in 1844 in New Orleans, Cable moved to Massachusetts in his forties, no doubt because of his commitment to anti-racism. This commitment cost him some enmity, but was rewarded by a great friendship with Mark Twain, who evoked him with admiration in Life on the Mississippi (included in La Pléiade published in 2015). Cable's texts available in French, notably Louisiane (Magellan & Cie) and Carancro (Actes Sud), paint a great picture of nineteenth-century Louisiana while denouncing its conservatism, a vision opposed by Grace King (1852-1932) who wanted to give a more nuanced, and perhaps more sympathetic, image of her native region. She focused on writing portraits of women, whether white and from a declassified aristocracy or black and in the grip of poverty (Bayou l'ombre, Actes Sud), thus joining the trend that heralded feminism, with which Kate Chopin (1850-1904) was also associated. The latter was also discovered in French, for example by Interférences, which offered Le Sorcier de Gettysburg, a collection of short stories about the Civil War and life on the bayou, or by Liana Levi, publisher, with the novel L'Éveil
, which describes an extramarital love affair and its consequences for the protagonist. While at the dawn of the 1920s the Harlem Renaissance movement appeared, in which Arna Bontemps, born in 1902 in Alexandria, participated, the American South saw the emergence of a literature that was conscious of its past while being strongly inscribed in its present. These two trends can be symbolized by Frances Parkinson Keyes (1885-1970) on the one hand, and Lyle Saxon (1891-1946) on the other, two writers who enjoyed a wide audience. The first, a senator's wife, was first inspired by her life for her entry into literature with texts with a strong autobiographical accent, before launching into a more novelistic work that took Louisiana as a setting(Steamboat Gothic, Blue Camellia). Her old-fashioned style, the stereotypes she used and her Catholic convictions, which soon transpired in her literary writings, make her less popular today, but this would not make us forget her posterity at the time. As for Lyle Saxon, his career as a journalist certainly accentuated his ability to freeze and collect the elements of folklore. His rather prolific work(Fabulous New Orleans, Gumbo Ya-Ya, Old Louisiana) still serves as a historical base for those interested in the early 20th century, although it has not been translated into our language. It was still at this time that the "Vieux Carré", the French Quarter of New Orleans, attracted artists who were sensitive to the unique atmosphere and low rents. Many authors settled in Louisiana for a summer or longer, but it would be difficult not to mention William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams, who both found inspiration here. Faulkner spent only six months in New Orleans - the building where he lived is now home to a bookstore that bears his name - but he brought back Sketches (short evocations to be discovered at Gallimard) and at least one novel: Mosquitoes (Points editions). Williams was more regular and never quite abandoned the city, where he met Un Tramway nommé Désir (because it was often late!) which became a play and ensured his fame from the first performance, in 1949 in Paris. A theater festival continues to pay tribute to him today.From the 20th to the 21st century
Although it has suffered the stigma of two world wars and some delicate issues such as equal civil rights have not yet been fully resolved, the twentieth century, especially in its second half, is in some ways a synthesis of the earlier period. Indeed, the literature became more colourful in the sense that it was multicultural, sometimes enriched by writers who settled in the region, and there was even a revival of Francophone literature. This would not have been possible without the commitment of CODOFIL, which obtained the recognition of French as a second official language in 1968, more than 50 years after it had been simply forbidden. In the same dynamic, the organization Action Cadienne, created in 1996, has the vocation to defend and promote the cultural heritage, including the French language.
In any case, in all this plurality, several writers stand out, some of whom will reach international fame, like Truman Capote who was certainly born in New Orleans in 1924, but in such conditions that he certainly did not keep a very good memory of his childhood in a shady family. Whatever his fate and his sad end, he became an icon, as much as a novelist (Breakfast at Tiffany's) as a writer of "non-fiction", a style close to the "gonzo journalism" to which he is closely linked as Hunter S. Thompson or Norman Mailer. Thompson or Norman Mailer. Indeed, with In Cold Blood, for which he was inspired by a true story and to which he devoted five years of interviews and documentary work, he revolutionized the "true story". Initially published as a series of columns in The New Yorker, the story was published in a single volume the following year and was once again hugely popular. Truman Capote continued to skillfully interweave fact and fiction in several collections, including Dogs Bark and Music for Chameleons. Five years younger, fellow American Shirley Ann Grau is less well known in our latitudes, yet she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1965 for The Keepers of the House
, an indifference she shares with John William Corrington (1932-1988), poet and short story writer. Conversely, and thanks to the good care of a committed editor such as Liana Levi, Ernest J. Gaines (1933-2019) was able to conquer the hearts of French readers. His most famous novel - Tell Them I Am a Man - has been awarded many times, and has been published again in 2022, and opens a work that intensely questions the relationship between whites and blacks in Louisiana(Catherine Carmier, Anger in Louisiana, The Name of the Son). A political approach that one would be hard pressed not to compare to that of James Lee Burke, who however officiates in the detective genre. Although he is a native of Texas, it is in Louisiana where he was raised that he develops his favorite character, Dave Robicheaux, deputy sheriff in New Iberia(The Angel's Blaze, In the Electric Mist, New Iberia Blues...). In a completely different genre, Anne Rice (1941-2021) devoted herself to fantasy and sold millions of copies ofInterviews with the Vampire , which was adapted for the screen and is the first volume of her Vampire Chronicles, one of her many sagas(Sleeping Beauty's Misfortunes, The Mayfair Witch Saga, The Gift of the Wolf Chronicles...). Finally, John Kennedy Toole deserves a place in this presentation, not only because he was born in New Orleans in 1937, but because he was the author of The Conjuring of Fools, a cynical novel that won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1981, twelve years after he committed suicide because he could not find a publisher.. In conclusion, let's mention Zachary Richard, who meanders between two cultures and uses both English and French in his poetry and music, and Barry Jean Ancelet, who is also very committed to the defense of Cajun culture.
