LSU College of Art & Design
16
Four Minutes On... oH w Fables Matter in Today’s Louisiana
By Darius Spieth, Professor of Art History. Excerpt from Mythologies Louisianaises, reprinted with permission of the curator Jonathan Mayers.
Read More
As a literary genre, fables occupy a unique position in the poetic history of French-speaking lands. They owe this importance primarily to Jean de la Fontaine, who, during the seventeenth century, became the first to systematically collect accounts about the hidden life of animals and of nature. A contemporary of Louis XIV’s “classical age,” La Fontaine, of course, derived his inspiration from authors of antiquity, such as Aesop, but in reality the range of source materials for his Fables was much larger and easily transcended France itself. As it is well known, La Fontaine’s Fables subsequently became a pillar of teaching and pedagogy for generations of pupils trained in the French language. They continue to play this didactic role to the present day. But let us not be fooled: fables are much more than tales for children; to say the least, they are not written exclusively for them. They recount the essential truths of adult life in a way that speaks to the imagination and the power of dreams. They are at the same time rational, funny, intuitive, and fantastic. When studied from a cultural perspective, they are both universal and timeless; they constantly redefine the coordinates of time and space
in which they exist. This mutability bestows them with the power of rejuvenation and the ability to speak to us from the perspective of the current situation. This is the case of contemporary creative activity in Louisiana, which is represented here through a selection of works by writers, poets, painters, photographers and printmakers. Among the great topics represented in this visual and literary meeting of minds, one stands out: that of nature and her hidden mysteries. The spirits of the swamps and the bayous, such as the “Loup Garou”, the “Swamp Witch”, the “Feux Follets” and their relationship with the humans with whom they share their grounds, are a central interest of our creators. But sometimes it is the revenge of nature on humans and ecological disasters that attract artists, such as in the paintings by Jonathan Mayers. Nostalgia for the past and death are never far in Louisiana, as evident in pictures by Elise Toups. After all, the cemeteries of New Orleans are as much an attraction for visitors as is Bourbon Street. The panorama is further enriched by the fascination with voodoo and popular traditions such as Mardi Gras and its fabulous parades (Herb Roe) or the
