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Performing Acadie: Marketing Pan-Acadian Identity in the Music of Vishtèn
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2012
Abstract
This article examines the influence of strategic musical alliances on the formation of a unique regional Acadian cultural identity. The Acadian communities of Prince Edward Island and les Îles-de-la-Madeleine (Québec), located on Canada's east coast, share a tumultuous socio-political history that is traced to le Grand Dérangement, the eighteenth-century deportation of thousands of Acadians from eastern Canada. The geographic location of the islands, their contemporary political affiliations, and divergent cultural retentions suggest distinct experiences of Acadian identity; nonetheless, renewed interest in inter-island partnerships has arisen over the past decade, often along musical lines. These alliances have been fostered largely by a young generation of musicians from the Acadian group, Vishtèn. Through their strategic musical, narrative, and marketing choices, members of Vishtèn have striven vigorously to advance the project of a shared island Acadian identity, while claiming a place in the global “traditional” music market. I conclude that this exchange has fostered an emic perception of a unified francophone Acadian community that has transformed the cultural geography of this region of “Acadia” and contributed to local processes of Acadian cultural revitalization.
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- Copyright © The Society for American Music 2012
References
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Discography
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Forsyth supplementary movie
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