Diverging Acadian(s): Language, Identity and Poetry in Louisiana and Maritime Canada

The Acadian Deportation, orGrand derangement, resulted in the Acadian population's dispersal throughout much of the Atlantic world. The surviving Acadians and their descendants were scattered to France, across the East Coast of North America, the Antilles, and elsewhere. Despite varying degrees of cultural and linguistic assimilation, Acadian identity today is particularly prevalent in the maritime provinces of Canada and in Louisiana. This article examines diverging notions of Acadian identity in Canada and Louisiana through the lens of contemporary poetry. As the number of native Cajun French speakers declines, French language seems to play a less important role in the identity paradigm. Nevertheless, a literary movement exists whose adherents insist on the French spelling cadien and argue that French is essential to Cajun identity. However, these writers go largely unnoticed by the mass of predominantly Anglophone Cajuns. The linguistic reality differs sharply with Acadian communities of Maritime Canada, where the French language has proven to be asine qua nonof Acadian identity. In focusing on cultural identity in Louisiana this article shows how Cajun and Acadian notions of identity differ in popular and poetic discourse.