Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
Journal of New Brunswick Studies logo

Articles

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2015)

Le nationalisme acadien et l’émergence de la littérature acadienne (1875-1957)

  • Denis Bourque
Submitted
October 30, 2015
Published
2015-06-26

Abstract

This article proposes that Acadian nationalism was shaped by both the Acadian National Conventions and also by a collective narrative serving as the foundation of that nationalism. These forces gave rise to an emerging Acadian literature during the first half of the twentieth century. Although not yet profuse at that time, the literature was nonetheless committed to determining and ensuring a distinct Acadian identity, including a struggle for survival of the Acadian “nation.” Notable, especially, was the generic diversity of this early literature. In addition to nationalist speeches, it included essays, plays, novels, and poetry. It offered, as well, a regeneration of history, particularly great myths and heroes, and it defended language, traditions, customs, and religion. These objectives of the first Acadian writers can thus be construed as an expansion of the nationalist discourse that was taking place at the end of the nineteenth century.