Deep Meanings in Small Places:
Social and Community Values in the
Oral Tradition of French Louisiana
11:00 a.m., Monday, Aug. 28, 2006
Webster Hall Auditorium
Admission: free

This presentation explored the ways in which traditional stories express a community’s sense of itself through reflections and illustrations of its social values. Motifs common to older animal and magic tales, and humor strategies of ubiquitous jokes shift in interesting and important ways to reflect specific cultural and social values in Louisiana French versions. Historical tales can also reflect the community’s social values in significant ways. A close examination of a few tales from Louisiana French oral tradition illustrated the deep meanings they can convey about the storytellers’ sense of place and the social values of that place.

Dr. Barry Jean Ancelet is a professor of folklore and Francophone studies in the Department of Modern Languages, which he currently chairs, at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is a native Louisiana French-speaking Cajun and has given papers and published articles and books on various aspects of Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole cultures and languages. He has a doctorate in Études Créoles (anthropology and linguistics) from the Université de Provence (Aix-Marseille I). Dr. Ancelet is a member of France’s Palmes Académiques and Quebec’s Ordre des Francophones d’Amérique, and hosts the “Rendez-vous des Cadiens,” a weekly live radio show from the Liberty Theater in Eunice, La.