Disenchanting Les Bons Temps

"Disenchanting Les Bons Temps is an elegant riddle that stands above a book that takes up Cajun music and tells the story of the author's immersion into its ambient culture. The book accomplishes two principal tasks. It brings Cajun music into the growing field of cultural studies, a discipline, neither fish nor fowl, that marries theories based on total social facts--facts that determine the patterns, orders, and events of history--to sociology. Not anthropology, yet nonetheless a human science, cultural studies cuts a path between synchronic analysis of social groups and treatment of conceptual formations that determine how people live their lives." - Tom Conley , SubStance

"Expands the reader's critical understanding of the paradoxes of cultural constructs and the borders between them, while masterfully guiding the reader through some difficult critical territory, systematically resituating , and reinforcing its major arguments. . . . By the close of this engaging amalgam of scholarly discourse and personal passion, it's a good bet the reader will share the author's enchantment with hybridity and his hope for continued growth and expansion of Cajun cultural practices." - Les Essif, L’Esprit Créateur

"[T]he first genuinely scholarly treatment of the music of the Louisiana Acadians. . . . [T]his study addresses important cultural matters—film, music events, sociopolitical tensions. . . . Recommended." - T. E. Miller , Choice

"[V]ery informative. . . . [C]lear, concise, and rich in historical and bibliographical data." - Eric Sellin , International Journal of Francophone Studies

"An outstanding addition to the scholarship in cultural studies and French and Francophone studies, Stivale's book cuts across several disciplines and brilliantly integrates first-hand ethnographic work with close literary and textual analysis. This is perhaps his most important contribution to the current literature. Indeed, this volume will draw readers from a variety of disciplines and will fit well in several courses including French and Francophone cultures, approaches to (French) cultural studies, ethnomusicology, and anthropology." - Denis M. Provencher , French Review

"Charles J. Stivale’s new book, Disenchanting Les Bons Temps was inspired by his years of experience in the sweaty dancehalls of the Louisiana bayous. From his practice of Cajun waltzes, two-steps and jitterbugs, Stivale developed a complex appreciation of a regional folk culture facing the dilemmas of commodification as its music and cuisine have entered the American mainstream. This not only helped Stivale understand the beauty and art in Cajun culture; it helped him become a better dancer." - Vince Carducci , Metro Times (Detroit)

”Disenchanting Les Bons Temps is an outstanding and original contribution to both the literatures on popular/folk music and to contemporary debates about the practice of cultural studies.” - Lawrence Grossberg, author of Bringing It All Back Home: Essays on Cultural Studies

”Charles J. Stivale has a unique ability to bring together his deep and fluent understanding of Deleuzean theory with his passion and enthusiasm for Cajun music. It's not an obvious combination of elements, but Stivale pulls it off with grace and skill. I attribute that to the clear way that his love for the diverse ingredients of this scholarly gumbo shines through his prose.” - Gilbert B. Rodman, author of Elvis after Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend