Faculté des Lettres et des Langues

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E.M Hull’s The Sheik (1919) and its 1921 Hollywood Adaptation as Ambivalent and Intertextual Texts
(Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-ouzou, 2014) ZIAD Samia
The purpose of this work is to probe the social and textual references that shaped the contours of Edith Maude Hull’s The Sheik and its 1921 Hollywood adaptation. The study of the adaptations and transformations of pre-existing sources that the two texts expose is what urged the use of the theory of intertextuality, as suggested by both Julia Kristeva and Gérard Genette. The second goal of this study is to gauge the ambivalence of the colonial discourse, as adopted by Hull and adapted by the film director, George Melford. The manifestation and recurrence of the double representation of the Algerian Desert, “the gate of the desert” (Biskra) and its inhabitants and the persistence of the strategy of “Mimicry” have all been highlighted by referring to Homi K. Bhabha’s post colonial theory of ambivalence. After using the two theories, I come to two outstanding conclusions. First, both the novel and movie cannot be probed as single entities and/ or original texts because they compile pre-existing sources. Second, the colonial discourse adopted by Hull and adapted by Melford is inconsistent as it is fraught with contradictions and ambiguity.