Research UNE

This article reflects on the role of poetry from the Alpine region of the Aosta Valley as a hybrid contact zone that challenges the borders of the nation state and the boundaries between French and “Patois”. It investigates some examples of poetry in French and in Patois Valdostano, a variety of Francoprovençal, written during the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries by such authors as Irma Bonfillon, Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne, Eugénie Martinet, Marco Gal. Additionally, it considers some transalpine comparative examples of poetry written in France by Amélie Gex (Patois Savoyard) and Jules Mousseron (Picard). The overall objectives are to encourage 1. A more nuanced, multilingual, and diversified discourse around the very meaning of “Francophonie”; 2. A broader reflection aimed at challenging the stale nexus between linguistic unity and the nation state; 3. A transprovincial outlook that revalues the idea of provincialism as an empowering, multicultural tool, rather than a derogatory word denoting narrow-mindedness.