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 the local press(Le Moniteur de la Louisiane, 1794). We might also recall the poetry of Nantes-born philanthropist 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 by leprosy at the age of 15, who wrote his verses in the refuge he had found for himself on the bayou and published them in 1841 under the title Les Éphémères, and no doubt to Victor Séjour (1817-1874), who published the earliest work by an African-American author in 1837: the short story Le Mulâtre, which denounced slavery. Although somewhat forgotten today, this author nevertheless paved the way for Armand Lanusse (1810-1868), a free French-speaking slave who became involved in the fight for equal civil rights, launched L'Album littéraire in 1843 , a journal for young people interested in literature, and two years later brought together Les Cenelles, a " selection of indigenous poetry " to which he contributed. Indian culture, for its part, was highlighted by two brothers, Dominique Rouquette, born in 1810, and Adrien, three years his junior. Having grown up in Louisiana but gone into exile for their studies, the former sang the nostalgia of his native land in Les Meschacébéennes (named after a tribe), published in Paris in 1839, while the latter finally broke with his milieu to go and live with the Choctaws in 1859, eighteen years after publishing his most famous text: Les Savanes.
It was truly in the aftermath of the Civil War that a literature was developed that could be described as national. In any case, the French language benefited from the support of La Renaissance louisianaise and L'Athénée louisianais, founded by Alfred Mercier in 1875, which opened their columns to writers. Mercier also devoted himself to the art of the essay(Étude sur la langue créole en Louisiane, 1880) and the novel(L'Habitation Saint-Ybars, 1881), with success comparable to that of his female counterpart Sidonie de la Houssaye (1820-1894), who took up writing after the death of her husband, and continued to do so until her own death. Her already substantial body of work(Contes d'une grand-mère louisianaise, Pouponne et Balthazar...) was 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 scene was in decline, as American-language writers began to make their mark, drawing on 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 New Orleans in 1844, Cable moved to Massachusetts in his forties, no doubt because of his commitment to anti-racism. This commitment cost him a few enmities, but was rewarded by a great friendship with Mark Twain, who wrote admiringly of him in Life on the Mississippi (included in La Pléiade, published in 2015). Cable's French-language works, including Louisiane (Magellan & Cie) and Carancro (Actes Sud), paint a sweeping picture of 19th-century Louisiana while denouncing its conservatism, a view opposed by Grace King (1852-1932), who wanted to present a more nuanced, and perhaps more sympathetic, image of her native region. More specifically, she focused on writing portraits of women, whether white and from a declassed aristocracy, or black and in the grip of poverty(Bayou l'ombre, Actes Sud), thus joining the trend heralding feminism, with which Kate Chopin (1850-1904) would also be associated. The latter was also discovered in French, for example by Editions Interférences with Le Sorcier de Gettysburg, a collection of short stories about the Civil War and life on the bayou, or by Liana Levi, publisher of the novel L'Éveil, which describes an extramarital love affair and its consequences for the protagonist.
At the dawn of the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance movement, in which Arna Bontemps, born in Alexandria in 1902, took part, saw the emergence of a literature in the American South that was aware of its past, yet firmly rooted in its present. These two trends are symbolized by Frances Parkinson Keyes (1885-1970) and Lyle Saxon (1891-1946), two widely read writers. The first, a senator's wife, first used her own life as a source of inspiration for her literary debut, with texts that had a strong autobiographical accent, before launching into a more novelistic body of work that took Louisiana as its setting(Steamboat Gothic, Blue Camellia). Her old-fashioned style, the stereotypes she used and her Catholic convictions, which soon found their way into her literary writings, make her less popular today, but that doesn't mean her posterity is forgotten. As for Lyle Saxon, his career as a journalist certainly accentuated his ability to freeze and harvest the elements of folklore. His rather prolific work(Fabulous New Orleans, Gumbo Ya-Ya, Old Louisiana) still serves as a historical foundation for anyone interested in the early 20th century, although it has not been translated into our language. It was also at this time that the "Vieux Carré", the French Quarter of New Orleans, attracted artists sensitive to the unique atmosphere and low rents. Many authors settled in Louisiana for a summer or longer, but it's hard not to dwell on William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams, both of whom found inspiration here. Faulkner may have spent only six months in New Orleans - the building where he lived is now home to a bookshop that bears his name - but he did bring back Sketches (short evocations to be discovered at Gallimard) and at least one novel: Mosquitoes (published by Points). Williams was more regular and never quite abandoned the city, where he encountered Un Tramway nommé Désir (because it was often late!), which became a play and ensured his fame from the very 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 issues as delicate as equal civil rights have yet to be fully resolved, the 20th century, especially in its second half, represents something of a synthesis of the earlier period. Indeed, literature is becoming more colourful in the sense that it is multicultural, sometimes enriched by writers who settle in the region, and we are even witnessing a revival of French-language literature. This would not have been possible without the commitment of CODOFIL, which secured the recognition of French as a second official language in 1968, more than 50 years after it had simply been banned. In the same vein, Action Cadienne, created in 1996, is dedicated to defending and promoting cultural heritage, including the French language.
Nevertheless, in all this plurality, several writers stand out, some of whom would go on to achieve international renown, such as Truman Capote (1924-1984), who was certainly born in New Orleans, but under such conditions that he certainly didn't have very fond memories of his childhood in a shady family. Whatever his fate and sad end, he nonetheless became an icon, both as a novelist(Breakfast at Tiffany's) and as a writer of "non-fiction", a style akin to "gonzo journalism", to which he is as closely linked as Hunter S. Thompson or Norman Mailer. Indeed, with In Cold Blood, for which he drew inspiration from a true story and 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 as a single volume the following year, and again met with enormous success. Truman Capote continued to skilfully interweave fact and fiction in several collections, including Dogs Bark and Music for Chameleons. Five years his junior, fellow American Shirley Ann Grau (1929-2020) 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 poet and short story writer John William Corrington (1932-1988).
Conversely, and thanks to the care of a committed publisher like Liana Levi, Ernest J. Gaines (1933-2019) won the hearts of French readers. His most famous novel , the award-winning Tell Them I Am a Man , was republished in 2022, and opens a body of work that intensely examines the relationship between blacks and whites in Louisiana(Catherine Carmier, Colère en Louisiane, Le Nom du fils). It's a political approach that would be hard not to compare with that of James Lee Burke, who, however, officiates in the detective genre. Although a native of Texas, it was in Louisiana, where he was raised, that he developed his favorite character, Dave Robicheaux, deputy sheriff of New Iberia(Le Brasier de l'ange, Dans la brume électrique, New Iberia blues...). In a completely different genre, Anne Rice (1941-2021) devoted herself to fantasy, selling millions of copies ofInterviews with the Vampire , which was adapted for the screen and forms the first volume of her Vampire Chronicles, one of her many sagas(The Misfortunes of Sleeping Beauty, The Mayfair Witch Saga, The Wolf's Gift Chronicles...). Tim Gautreaux's three remarkable works plunge us into the muggy bayous of Cajun country, or along the meandering Mississippi in the sawmill era of the 1920s in Le dernier arbre, the steamboat era in Nos Disparus, or the oil crisis in Fais-moi danser, Beau Gosse. Finally, John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969) deserves a place in this presentation, not only because he was born in New Orleans, but also because he is 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 couldn't find a publisher.. Finally, we should mention Zachary Richard, who meanders between two cultures, using both English and French in his poetry and music, and Barry Jean Ancelet, who is equally committed to defending Cajun culture.
