Browsing by Author "MOUHOUBI Mohamed"

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    From Pax Britannica to Pax Americana : Dialectic of Power/Knowledge in Avatar (2009), Heart of Darkness (1902), and The Tempest (1611)
    (Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi-Ouzou, 2015-03) MOUHOUBI Mohamed
    This dissertation is set within Postcolonial framework. It studies James Cameron's Avatar in the light of Western literary tradition, namely William Shakespeare's The Tempest and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. It aims to show the constant transmutations and transformations of the imperialist elements of power through Western cultural productions. Moreover, it looks at how Otherness is transformed from the state of being considered as a counter-Self—all what the Westerner is not and has not—into a market exotic commodity in the 21st century society of spectacle. To do this, the present dissertation is divided into three chapters. Chapter One compares Avatar to The Tempest, putting focus on space (geography) and Otherness. Using Ashcroft's notion of “imperial gaze” (2001), it is put forward that the affirmation of identity needs to find a new “uninhabited” place. It explains that the main characters are portrayed as agents of power, heralding an apotheosis of imperialism. Chapter Two examines the same movie with Heart of Darkness. To reconsider Cameron's anti-imperialist assertion, comparing it to Conrad's. After that, it extracts the traditional means of colonialism within the movie, comparing them to those found in Conrad's novella. The Other here is seen as an interior one (like Kurtz). Focusing on Pratt's notion of anti-conquest hero (1992), it argues that though Avatar is set to uphold an anti-imperialist message; it mystifies new elements, which passively sustain the continuity of what Gramsci calls the hegemonic power (1999). The last chapter studies Avatar within its immediate context. Considering the use of both myths and exoticism, it sheds light on how this movie works as a new means of imperialist power, heralding what Alessio and Meredith prefer to call “monopoly imperialism” based on consumerism (2012). As this dissertation suggests, this is no more than the transmutation of the traditional imperialist power of the British imperialism into a more sophisticated power within Hollywood machine.