"Capitaine, Voyage Ton Flag"


Book Description

Correlates rituals from ancient and medieval Europe to modern day Mardi Gras in Mamou.




Buying the Wind


Book Description

Selection of tales, songs, riddles, proverbs and other items of folklore from seven regional cultures of the U.S.A.




Disenchanting Les Bons Temps


Book Description

DIVPresents the complex and conflicting views of Cajun cultural heritage, identities, and their manifestation in musical and dance expression./div




Cajun Literature and Cajun Collective Memory


Book Description

How does Cajun literature, emerging in the 1980s, represent the dynamic processes of remembering in Cajun culture? Known for its hybrid constitution and deeply ingrained oral traditions, Cajun culture provides an ideal testing ground for investigating the collective memory of a group. In particular, francophone and anglophone Cajun texts by such writers as Jean Arceneaux, Tim Gautreaux, Jeanne Castille, Zachary Richard, Ron Thibodeaux, Darrell Bourque, and Kirby Jambon reveal not only a shift from an oral to a written tradition. They also show hybrid perspectives on the Cajun collective memory. Based on recurring references to place, the texts also reflect on the (Acadian) past and reveal the innate ability of the Cajuns to adapt through repeated intertextual references. The Cajun collective memory is thus defined by a transnational outlook, a transversality cutting across various ethnic heritages to establish and legitimize a collective identity both amid the linguistic and cultural diversity in Louisiana, and in the face of American mainstream culture. Cajun Literature and Cajun Collective Memory represents the first analysis of the mnemonic strategies Cajun writers use to explore and sustain the Cajun identity and collective memory.




Unsettling Assumptions


Book Description

In Unsettling Assumptions, editors Pauline Greenhill and Diane Tye examine how tradition and gender come together to unsettle assumptions about culture and its study. Contributors explore the intersections of traditional expressive culture and sex/gender systems to question, investigate, or upset concepts like family, ethics, and authenticity. Individual essays consider myriad topics such as Thanksgiving turkeys, rockabilly and bar fights, Chinese tales of female ghosts, selkie stories, a noisy Mennonite New Year’s celebration, the Distaff Gospels, Kentucky tobacco farmers, international adoptions, and more. In Unsettling Assumptions, folkloric forms express but also counteract negative aspects of culture like misogyny, homophobia, and racism. But expressive culture also emerges as fundamental to our sense of belonging to a family, an occupation, or friendship group and, most notably, to identity performativity and the construction and negotiation of power.




Louisiana Sojourns


Book Description

A sweeping collection of observations and episodes penned by visitors to Louisiana from the sixteenth century to the 1990s, Louisiana Sojourns is—much like the state itself—a wonder to behold in its sum, and in its particulars, full of surprise and delight. The seventy-six pieces that Frank A. de Caro has selected give readers a vivid sense of how Louisiana's unique blend of Old World, South, the exotic, and quintessential America has exerted a pull and hold on travelers. Included are writings by well-known figures such as Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt, Kate Chopin, John Steinbeck, Frederick Law Olmsted, Walker Percy, William Faulkner, Simone de Beauvoir, Henry Miller, John James Audubon, Calvin Trillin, Zora Neale Hurston, A. J. Liebling, William Least Heat Moon, and Frederick Turner. Dozens of other wayfarers are represented as well.




Cajun Women and Mardi Gras


Book Description

Cajun Women and Mardi Gras is the first book to explore the importance of women’s contributions to the country Cajun Mardi Gras tradition, or Mardi Gras “run.” Most Mardi Gras runs--masked begging processions through the countryside, led by unmasked capitaines--have customarily excluded women. Male organizers explain that this rule protects not only the tradition’s integrity but also women themselves from the event’s rowdy, often drunken, play. Throughout the past twentieth century, and especially in the past fifty years, women in some prairie communities have insisted on taking more active and public roles in the festivities. Carolyn E. Ware traces the history of women’s participation as it has expanded from supportive roles as cooks and costume makers to increasingly public performances as Mardi Gras clowns and (in at least one community) capitaines. Drawing on more than a decade of fieldwork interviews and observation in Mardi Gras communities, Ware focuses on the festive actions in Tee Mamou and Basile to reveal how women are reshaping the celebration as creative artists and innovative performers.




Cajun French-English, English-Cajun French Dictionary & Phrasebook


Book Description

Presents 3,800 terms in English and Cajun French and includes a historical overview of Cajun French, frequently asked questions about the language, a pronunciation guide, basic grammar, and essential phrases.







The Callahan Brothers Trilogy


Book Description

Set in steamy Blue Bayou, Louisiana, The Callahan Brothers features three sexy siblings and the fascinating women who fall in love with them. ?? Blue Bayou: Danielle Dupree and Jack Callahan both grew up in Blue Bayou, Louisiana; Danielle was the closest thing the community ever had to a princess, and Jack was the sexy bad-boy son of her wealthy father's housekeeper. Dani and Jack had a steamy love affair as teenagers, until Dani’s father, Judge Dupree, sends Jack away. Thirteen years later Dani returns to Blue Bayou as a widow with a young son. Jack too, has returned, having purchased the former Dupree home, the grand and stately Beau Soleil with hopes of restoring it to its former glory. A former DEA agent, Jack is now a bestselling writer. But even as their passion reignites, Dani and Jack know that secrets hang in the air…and that the past may ruin their second chance at a once-in-a-lifetime love. River Road: Free-spirited actress Julia Summers has wanted to be a Bond Girl all her life, so landing the role of Carma Sutra in the newest James Bond movie is a dream come true. But before she can head off to Katmandu to start her new role, she has to wrap up the season of the nighttime soap opera on which she plays a vixen. The cast is on location in Blue Bayou, LA when Julia begins to receive potentially threatening fan letters. Not wanting to put his star (and the show) at risk, the director hires no-nonsense FBI Agent Finn Callahan to act as a bodyguard. Julia and Finn soon discover that despite their differences, there's an undeniable attraction between them. Magnolia Moon: Detective Regan Hart’s life turns upside down when her dying mother confesses that Regan was adopted. Determined to learn the truth about her past, she travels to Blue Bayou to piece together her birth mother’s mysterious death and figure out the identity of her real father. The mayor of Blue Bayou, Nate Callahan, has always loved Southern belles. And they’ve always loved him right back. But when Regan comes to town, he finds himself drawn to the no-nonsense cop. And although she initially dismisses him as a rogue, Regan can’t help noticing a deeper side to Nate. With Nate’s help, Regan delves deep into her mysterious past—and ends up learning more about her family, her heart, and herself than she had ever expected.