The Big Easy: Literary New Orleans and Intangible Heritage

Objectifs

Once students are versed in the geography of la Francophonie, the international and linguistic community that shares French, we will begin our journey through deep time to New Orleans, Louisiana. No other city in the world could serve as a better testament to Jill Lane's concept of deep time than New Orleans. By deep time, Lane means to convey that we are still living the consequences of history today. As far behind as we may like to think we've left the past, it is likely more accurate to be cognizant of the fact that our contemporary existence is perpetually lived out among the vestiges of yesteryear. Thinking through deep time allows us to take measure of the conflicting and overlapping temporalities of social, political and geological time. ³ Here, New Orleans will serve as a portal through which my students will embark on a journey of their own, through such contradictory and overlapping temporalities of time, to the mysterious world of its colonial beginnings. I suspect that what they discover about the naissance of this francophone part of the world geographically closer to home than any other, will compel them to take a "different measure," as suggested by Jill Lane, of everything that shaped such a fascinating place and made it what it is today.

Focusing on the French influence in Louisiana, we will endeavor to integrate the three modes of communication: interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational, while developing cultural perspectives and connections. This unit lends itself well to performance-based student assessments; de rigueur in Foreign Language pedagogical circles. The interpretive phase of communication is the study of a text written by native speakers, intended for native speakers. Students will interpret, analyze, memorize and recite some poems from this anthology while gaining insight into the social predicament of the French-speaking, American poets who penned it. This group of nineteenth century personnes de couleur libres produced the first anthology of African-American verse ever published in the United States, carefully navigating the paradoxes thrust upon them because of their caste – not completely black or white – and in defiance of the racial ostracism they battled in antebellum Nouvelle Orléans.

Although some misguided educators believe that memorization is detrimental to enjoyment and creativity in learning, students benefit tremendously from the linguistic foundation that memorization provides. Having students memorize and then recite one of the poems studied, will serve as an excellent exercise in language learning, vocabulary development, and for the pronunciation practice useful to all students.

Because poets need to conform to their chosen rhythm and rhyme, they often need to use sophisticated words and grammatical patterns above our normal exposure or conversational usage. This is linguistic gold. By hearing—and better still by memorizing-a variety of poems, we have access to a richness of vocabulary and syntax we might never master in any other way.⁴

The objective is to begin with the interpretive phase of communication by studying an authentic document – in our case, a selection of poetry from the anthology, Les Cenelles. Students are naturally inclined to read an authentic text and underline all the words they don't know first. This is known as bottom-up processing in reading theory circles, as they seek to decipher a text rather than to read for overall comprehension. The problem with bottom-up processing is that once they look up the words they've underlined in the dictionary, they will be apt to record the wrong definition of those words, since they are generally unclear as to the context of the document. A much better strategy is to teach students to focus on what they already know, and to employ top-down strategies which include reading for the gist, skimming and scanning. "Research shows that many learners, when faced with authentic L2 texts, will not automatically apply the same top-down processing strategies that they use in their native language. ⁵

One of the biggest challenges for AP World Language teachers is to get students who are accustomed to fast-paced stimuli excited about the activity of reading as a vehicle to language acquisition. The task becomes more daunting than usual as we are presenting students with reading material in a foreign language. Whether they are bored or intimidated by the effort and active participation necessary to read and comprehend texts written in the target language, we cannot as educators, ignore the most important skill – albeit the most difficult to teach and learn – in facilitating both communication and cultural awareness in the language classroom.

In order to improve their reading proficiency which is vital to nurturing the development of speaking and writing skills, AP French Language students should be exposed to a variety of documents including newspaper articles, literary excerpts, poems, historical documents, and even science articles written by native speakers, for native speakers. If students are to be prepared for the rigorous, third year college level exam they will take at the end of the course, they should not feel intimidated when confronted with an authentic text. Any of these types of documents can be found on the exam and multiple samples of each should be practiced throughout the school year. As previously mentioned, this particular unit will focus on the analysis of a sampling of nineteenth century, New Orleanian, Afro-French poetry. By enticing students using works written within the rich historical backdrop and the hypocrisy of racial dynamics in antebellum New Orleans, they will be encouraged to discover hidden messages of social resistance behind what appear to be merely aching love ballads; an experience guaranteed to enhance the enjoyment of reading in a foreign language! "…these poems transcend classification as mere imitations of French Romantic poetry and can be read as indirect, discreet attacks on an insidious threat to the manhood and cultural integrity of free blacks." ⁶ I am certain that the subject matter will be of interest to my students who have displayed an acute interest in all matters of race. Many of them are still grappling with the formulation of their own opinions and the social implications thereof.