Département d'Anglais

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A Foucauldian Analysis of Power , Punishment and Docile Bodies in Milos Forman’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and Stuart Rosenberg’s Brubaker (1980)
(Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi-Ouzou, 2015) LAOUARI Mohamed Larbi
This thesis studied the themes of power, punishment and docile bodies in Milos Forman’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and Stuart Rosenberg’s Brubaker (1980) from a Foucauldian approach. Looking at these movies as countercultural artistic works that Hollywood released to dramatize a very remarkable period in the American history known basically for its political instability both at the national and the international levels, this thesis analyzed the unjust doctor/ patient power relations inside Oregon Psychiatric Hospital as well as the unfair and corrupt trusties/prisoners relation at Wakefield State Penitentiary. It explained how these oppressive relations are tantamount to the relationship between Americans and their government during a time period marked by the government’s strong and effective grip on people and society. It also demonstrated how other strategies like discipline, surveillance and observation are implemented inside institutions, namely prison and hospital, to create a panoptican climate through which both patients and prisoners are, ultimately, transformed into docile conforming bodies. In short, I have explained the symbolic clash that appears in the two movies between freethinking and its ability to reform and question the established order, and the adjusted and controlled life, which is suggestive of an existing clash between two discourses in America. A rather traditional, conservative and pro-government discourse calling Americans for conformity, and complete allegiance to the government on one hand, and an anti-government discourse, which, on the other hand, denounced blind conformism and asked for radical reforms and improvements in the American society. Leaning on Michel Foucault’s theoretical perspectives about institutions of punishment, confinement and imprisonment, this work, in its four chapters, has critically analyzed One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Brubaker. It uncovered thereby the two movies’ ideological and artistic bearings to history by drawing attention to the dramatization of some challenging countercultural ideas and radical movements in the history of the United States in particular and human civilization in general
A Postcolonial Study of David Lean’s Film Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
(Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi-Ouzou, 2016) TAHIR Fahima
This dissertation analyses David Lean’s 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia in the light of postcolonial theory. Appropriating Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism, our research was conducted on three major axes; the depiction of the Arabian Desert as a space where the events took place, the representation of the Arabs and the possible hidden agenda underlying the film. Having analysed various scenes, characters, dialogues, we came out with the conclusion that the film is filled with all manner of stock Orientalist images, characters and themes. As an Oriental space, the Arabian Desert is represented as a place beyond history and civilisation and is given two images. It is both an “exotic” place where a bored and undisciplined young Englishman gets the opportunity to become a hero and a “hostile” place where the latter is in constant danger. As Orientals, the Arabs are ascribed a set of negative characteristics that fix them in an inferior position vis-a-vis the Westerners. Most of all, we discovered that, in his adaptation of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, director David Lean added several historically inaccurate scenes. From our analysis of the these scenes we noticed that the Arabs are shown either as a divided people always fighting against each other or as subordinates who are in desperate need for Western guidance. Taking into consideration the historical context of the film’s production, it appeared to us that all the added scenes carry overt political connotations. It became clear that Lean purposefully altered history to serve his film’s hidden imperialistic agenda.
The Algerian Middle School Writing Syllabus and its Implementation: A Case Study of some Teachers of Tizi-Ouzou.
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2010) DAOUD, Kahina
The following magister dissertation seeks to analyse the instructional writing plan as laid down in the Algerian Middle School syllabuses and as implemented inn the textbooks and delivered in the classroom. Accordingly, it has resorted to the evaluation of the writing syllabuses, the four Middle School course books and the teacher practice of the skills. To this end, we have appealed to the process theory of learning writing skills and strategies, textbook evaluation, classroom observation and the questionnaire technique. The aim behind the research is the evaluation of the instructional plan motivated by the rather weak results that brevet students obtained in English in 2007 and 2008. The writing skill being the medium through which students show their real competencies, in these exams, we have tried to examine and evaluate it in order to sort out the weaknesses and strengths in the instructional plan related to this skill. Our dissertation consists of two parts, divided into three parts each. One part is theoretical and the other is practical. In the theoretical part, we made a review of the literature where we have showed that writing theories have gradually moved to the recommendation of teaching writing as a process rather a product. In the second part, we have analysed in this order the syllabuses, the textbooks and the teacher practice. On the whole, we have concluded that the instructional plan related to the writing syllabuses, the textbooks and teacher practice contain positive points, but the idea of process is not sufficiently fleshed out in its three components. The syllabuses and the textbooks are basically task-based, but the tasks are mostly of the pedagogic type; the sequencing of the skills is too systematic and gives primacy to the spoken skills without regard to the students’ needs in terms of taking the Brevet Exam. The teacher profile is not taken into account since no teacher development syllabus is included in the syllabuses proper or in the textbooks. The whole impression is that of putting old wine into new bottles.
Analysis of Conjunctive Cohesion Errors in Students’ Compositions: The Case of the Department of English at Tizi-Ouzou University
(Mouloud MAMMERI University of Tizi-Ouzou, 2010) YACINE Djamal
Cohesion in writing is widely explored by different researchers. However, to date, cohesive errors in writing, according to our knowledge, have not been investigated thoroughly. Hence, this study is an attempt to analyse conjunctive cohesion errors in students’ compositions. It seeks mainly to analyse one hundred expository essays written by third year students of the Department of English at the University of Tizi-Ouzou during the academic year 2007/2008. In analyzing these essays, we aim mainly to identify conjunctive cohesion errors that these students have made in their compositions and the impact of these errors on the coherence of their essays. To achieve these goals, particular reference is made to Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) classification of conjunctive cohesion and to error analysis procedures. To identify these errors, students’ essays were segmented into orthographic sentences. Then, they were analyzed. The results of the present study showed that these students have made 135 conjunctive cohesion errors in their compositions. These errors are classified into four major categories. The first category comprises errors deriving from the misuse of conjunctive connectors. This one is divided into four minor categories and twelve sub-categories. The second major type includes errors resulting from the superfluous use of connectors; the use of connectors when they are not required. The third category deals with conjunctive cohesion errors deriving from the omission of connectors when they are needed. The last major category deals with the overuse of connectors. In addition, this study revealed that these errors have an impact on the coherence of the analysed essays. Therefore, according to these results, students of the Department of English at the University of Tizi-Ouzou need an explicit teaching and learning of the use of connectors appropriately.
Analysis of Interlanguage in Algerian Brevet Papers in English: A Case Study of Learners in Tizi-Ouzou
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2009) ISSELNANE, KARIMA;
This research is meant as a step in trying to understand how Algerian EFL learners construct interlanguage, which can be defined as a linguistic bridge between the learners’ first language and the language they are learning. It aims at determining the types of errors that are most recurrent, and their origins. Moreover, the purpose of the study is to classify and then analyse the types of writing errors that Algerian middle school pupils still make after the implementation of the third school reform undertaken in 2003. This work strives to contribute to understanding the sources of errors that are involved in the mental processes of EFL learners with Kabyle or Arabic L1s. 200 middle school pupils have participated in this study. After four years of English learning in the middle school, their level is supposed to be pre-intermediate. To conduct our research, we have sought our data from interviews written by Algerian middle school pupils during the first Brevet Exam held in 2007. The 655 total errors analysed in this study are divided into two main categories: interlingual errors and intralingual errors. Interlingual errors include spelling, auxiliaries, articles, pronouns, lexical and semantic errors, prepositions, and adjectives. Intralingual errors include wrong verb form, nouns, state verb concord, and subject-verb agreement. It is assumed that the causes of these errors are the result of the following: Interference from Kabyle or Arabic, interference from French, overgeneralisation, simplification, wrong hypothesis making, pupils’ inadequate knowledge regarding certain structures, the complexity of the English language, insufficient practice of grammatical rules, and the overwhelming pressure of the exam. The findings of this study indicate that first language interference still plays an important role in the learning process, since a major proportion of the errors are due to mother tongue interference. Furthermore, it reveals that the most important errors still made are those related to spelling, use of different auxiliaries and modal verbs, and wrong verb form. Suggestions are provided as to how to eliminate these errors in the second chapter.
Argument in American and British Cultural Studies Dissertations, Case Study: Mouloud MAMMERI University
(University Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2017-06-07) Lebiar, Khaled
This research explores the cultural variations in presenting, organizing, and reporting arguments in MA dissertations in Cultural Studies submitted and defended at the Department of English in the University of Mouloud MAMMERI of Tizi Ouzou. It builds on theoretical bearings explored by Robert Kaplan in his theory of Contrastive Rhetoric. However, this research, unlike Kaplan’s theory (which compares four cultural groups in relation to Anglophone cultures), is centered on the distinct traits of Arabic Rhetoric transferred by Algerian students of English as they compose in academic discourse. One finding highlighted at the level of this research is the “Intergenreality” found in Algerian dissertations, in which students abide to the broader conventional practice in the Anglo-American academia, while, on the narrower level, they unconsciously repudiate the same-practice rhetorical moves due to the inevitable influence of their first language/culture. The repetitive patterns found in Algerian students dissertations, from the boarder level of sections and paragraphs to the narrower one of sentences, clauses and even single words, make their argument more of a narrative and descriptive than its expected academic nature. Thus, Algerian students fail to present arguments that successfully and effectively communicate their notions and theses in the academic sphere.
Assia Djebar’s Fantasia, an Algerian Cavalcade (1985) and Yvonne Vera’s The Stone Virgins (2002): A Comparative Study
(Mouloud MAMMERI University of Tizi-Ouzou, 2011) BENNAI, Kahina
This dissertation is concerned with the issue of feminism in two novels belonging to the postcolonial literature, by exploring feminine enunciation in the works of the Algerian writer Assia Djebar’s Fantasia, an Algerian Cavalcade (1985) and the Zimbabwean author Yvonne Vera’s The Stone Virgins (2002). It postulates that even though the lives of Algerian and Zimbabwean women were shaped by different historical forces and social traditions, common themes exist in their writings because of their common postcolonial background. Both Djebar and Vera examine the relations of women to history in a postcolonial setting, and disclose the double oppression women experienced during colonial and postcolonial times as colonized and gendered subjects. In exploring feminine enunciation in the two novels, we intend to compare the events evoked by the two writers, and to draw some similarities between the two struggles for independence provoked by the French and British colonial invaders and next, by the discourse of neo-nationalism in the two countries Algeria and Zimbabwe, respectively. This study also explores the two authors’ respective language and style. The colonial language and poetic style engaged in Djebar’s and Vera’s selected narratives negotiate the liberation of the subaltern in accordance with the basic ideas of postcolonial gendered subaltern, as articulated by Gayatri Spivak, in particular. One of the main themes in the works of Djebar and Vera is that of women’s body. Both writers impose the materiality of the female body and experience it within the contexts of colonialism, oppositional nationalism, and feminist discourses through details of sexual violence that the women of the colonized nation endured in colonial and post-independence periods.
Bridging the Gap: Language, Culture and Literature, (2011) An Evaluation of Literature Teaching and Testing Tasks
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2017) ZIANE, Hania
The attempt along this research was to identify the relation between literature teaching and testing in three English departments. In order to evaluate the pedagogical approaches and practices of the literature curriculum, we have analyzed the educational objectives of the literature tasks and tests. Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Educational Objectives has served as a theoretical basis for the analysis. The study examines the content and the type of the cognitive skills introduced in the literature textbook, Bridging the Gap: Language, Culture and Literature. In addition, the cognitive objectives that are assessed in the literature tests are classified according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. A comparative analysis between the objectives of the literature tasks and tests reveals that there is a significant divergence between the teaching approaches and the testing habits. The literature course emphasizes the understanding skills. The comprehension of the literary text and developing reading skills is the major objective of the literature course. However, the investigation on the testing habits reveals that higher cognitive performance is often required. The evaluative and analytical skills are the targets in the literature test. Accordingly, the results obtained from the research confirm the suggested hypothesis. The research shows that literature teaching and testing pose a didactic challenge in the EFL context, and in some Algerian English departments, there is a detachment between the course objectives and the testing expectations. The research also gives insight into some pedagogical procedures that bridge the teaching/testing gap.
The Clash of Civilizations Rhetoric in George W. Bush’s Speeches
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2016) SMAILI, Souad
The present dissertation demonstrates how the utilization of language is always manipulated to convey the purposes of the speaker in order to have an effect on the listener. Politicians, in particular, comprehend the power of words to explicate and justify acts, as well as to persuade people to support them, even if this support implies a risk to their lives. Based on this understanding, I have analyzed the selected speeches and declarations of former President of the United States, George W. Bush, starting from September 11, 2001 leading up to the 2003 attack on Iraq, with special emphasis on the way he makes use of metaphors. The aim of the analysis is to reveal the real and essential motivation for Bush’s thoughts and actions. Samuel P. Huntington’s idea of The Clash of Civilizations (1993) seems likely to be his foremost (hidden) motivation. Furthermore, I suggest that Orientalism is the most significant ideology standing behind Bush-Cheney’s War on Terror rhetoric. To demonstrate that, I have devoted a considerable attention to metaphors and cognitive metaphor theory developed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980), metaphor criticism as presented by Lakoff (1991-2003) and Jonathan Charteris-Black (2005-2011). Metaphors are a very efficient means of presenting acts and actions in a manner that engages the audience and wins its sympathy, as they allow the speaker to identify himself/herself with the right and the good, and the enemy with the wrong and the evil. With the help of metaphors George W. Bush has succeeded in presented the events preceding the Iraqi war in a vague and often distorted value terms where assaults became preemptive defense, military invasion change of regime, war becomes peace, and occupation becomes humanitarian intervention.
A comparative Study between the Algerian New Prospects and the Tunisian Skills for Life: English Language Textbooks of the Last Year Secondary Education
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2010) Imerzoukéne, Sonia
The present work aims at comparing and contrasting two English language books designed for the Tunisian and Algerian students of the last year of secondary education-Skills for life and New Prospects- and the syllabuses on which they are based. Its major aim is to highlight the similarities and differences that exist between these two textbooks and the syllabuses they flesh out in relation with the CBA, an approach adopted in both countries. This objective is to be attained by analysing the language, social and technological skills and language aspects (grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation), then checking whether they are in conformity with the CBA principles. The study’s issue of the study is identified through six questions: Do the two textbooks reflect CBA assumptions and principles? Do the two syllabuses reflect and implement the CBA? Are there any similarities between the two textbooks’ content and procedures? Are there any similarities between the two syllabuses regarding design and content? Are the materials of both textbooks organized in a similar way? Do both countries aim at achieving similar terminal objectives at the end of the school year in question in particular and in secondary education in general? The analysis and comparison of the results has ended up in the following conclusions: The content of both textbooks is similar and conform to the CBA. The language skills are emphasised in both textbooks, though with a different presentation. The intercultural and socio-linguistic perspective lacks importance in both textbooks, though both syllabuses emphasise this aspect of language teaching. The approach adopted in both textbooks to teach the socio-linguistic dimension is not in conformity with CBA since there is no contrastive analysis between the culture of the students and that of English speaking countries, which does not comply with one of the major tenets of the CBA. Both textbooks and syllabuses give prominence to the writing skill regarding the fact that the school level in question ends with a national written examination based on written responses (baccalauréat) exam. Both syllabuses rely on task-based which is among the features of a CBA syllabus (the use of tasks). The Algerian syllabus unlike the Tunisian syllabus is project-based. Both of them aim at reaching similar objectives at teaching English secondary education terminal classes. Both of them are articulated around similar linguistic, methodological, and socio-cultural objectives. In both syllabuses the language skills, intercultural competence and technological skills are termed as strategies and the language aspects as functions and patterns to be mastered by the students. In general, the study indicates that the English language textbooks and syllabuses of both Tunisia and Algeria represent a similar designed work since many similarities are noticed with the consideration of the approach adopted and of the social differences existing between the two countries. The study, therefore, implies that further research about the English language textbooks and syllabuses between the different countries of the developing world would highlight findings of a paramount importance for these countries and the field of education.
A Contrastive Genre Analysis Study of Dissertation Introductions Written by Literature Postgraduates of Bejaia University and Natives.
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2017) ZERKA, Hakim
By way of investigating how the small cultures of discipline, genre and discourse community (Atkinson, 2004) directly impact NNS students’ writings, the present dissertation shows that the contrastive rhetoric hypothesis, stipulating that NNS students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds can be implicated as the etiology of the differences between English L1 and NNS students’ writings (Kaplan, 1966), is not valid in all situations and contexts. Using CARS model (Samraj, 2008), the present genre analysis study comparatively analyzes three sets of Literature Master’s dissertation introductions: four were composed by EFL students from Bejaia University, another four were written in Arabic by students from the department of Arabic of the same university and four introductions were written by English L1 students. Comparison of the generic structures of the three groups reveals that all three groups differently organize their introductions. More specifically, comparison of the English L2 and L1 introductions reveals differences in the move structure of the two groups. To check if these differences are due to students’ different backgrounds, English L2 and introductions in Arabic were compared. This comparison reveals that the two groups very significantly differ in how they rhetorically organize their texts. Using an interview to explain the differences between literature postgraduates of Bejaia University and the native ones, namely absence of step 1A of the first rhetorical move from English L2 texts and its presence in half of the native texts and predominance of move 3-step 1using inclusive we and the passive voice as hedging strategies in English L2 texts, and predominance of move 3-step 2B using I and the active voice as boosting strategies in the native introductions, the study shows that the discipline, the part-genre and the discourse community are three dynamic factors that shape students’ generic behavior. Besides offering a practical model for explicitly teaching the introduction part-genre to literature postgraduates of Bejaia University to raise their awareness of the rhetorical organization of this part-genre, the study shows the importance of the different factors that influence the EFL writing activity in the intercultural academic communication.
A Cross-cultural Study of Master Conclusions in English, Arabic and EFL Contexts: A Genre-based Approach
(University Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2017) Mohellebi, Hacene
The study of academic genres and part-genres across cultures and languages is gaining momentum among genre analysts and contrastive rhetoricians in many parts of the world. However, in the case of Algeria, this type of inquiry, despite having a vital pedagogical value for the EFL writing classroom, has been neglected. The present dissertation is an attempt to analyze cross-culturally the generic organization of the part-genre accompanying Master dissertations in literature, written by three distinct, yet overlapping, categories of students: native students of English, Algerian students of Arabic literature, and Algerian EFL students. For that end, I adopted Connor’s and Moreno’s (2005) model for cross-cultural studies of academic discourse and Bunton’s (2005) generic model for humanities and social sciences conclusions. The results of the analysis showed interesting insights regarding the rhetorical strategies that each group had employed in order to organize this partgenre of their dissertations. The English students’ organization was found largely congruent with Bunton’s model. This congruity includes both the status of the moves used and their rhetorical function in the text. Contrary to this, the Arabic conclusions were found practically inapplicable to the model, having demonstrated a striking divergence in terms of move status and move function to the extent that an alternative model was proposed to help explain and account for these differences. As regard the Algerian EFL conclusions, conforming to what the literature tells us on EFL writings, their schematic structure was found to follow what appears to be a ‘hybrid’ organization, borrowing rhetorical strategies from both native groups. Overall, it is believed that the factors influencing the organization of literature conclusions by English and Algerian students might be varied from the writing instructions and learning materials that each group receives and uses in the writing classroom to the different cultural attitudes towards what academic discourse implies in reality.
Cultural Context and Stereotypes in the Algerian Middle School EFL Classroom
(Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi-Ouzou, 2016) SELAMA Sid Ali
The aim of this research is twofold. Firstly, investigating the materials (mainly textbooks) used in the process of ELT at the Algerian middle school level. In other words, the research aims at exploring the reliability of the used textbooks in regard to their cultural content and finding out whether or not they promote cultural prejudices against the target culture. Secondly, it investigates the pupil’s attitudes towards the target culture being dealt with in the English language classroom and, attempts to find out the main reasons behind such attitudes. The Middle School English textbooks are quantitatively and qualitatively analysed and evaluated in terms of their cultural focus, using criteria of analysis created by Risager (1991), Skopinskaja (2003) and Michel (1986). Two questionnaires are designed: one for English language teachers, and the other for middle school learners to obtain quantitative and qualitative data to guide us in our investigation. The obtained qualitative and quantitative results indicated that though learners showed admiration for the foreign culture, yet they refused and showed a negative attitude towards some behaviours which are considered to be acceptable in the foreign culture. Also, the elicited information from teacher’s questionnaire indicated that textbooks represent an inadequate source for teaching/learning language through culture. One of the reasons behind this judgment is the presence of gender stereotyped depiction of the characters. Furthermore, we noticed that no textbook encourages or invites learners to come together in order to discuss and examine their opinions regarding the several cultural topics encompassed in the coursebooks. In the light of the obtained results, some practical recommendations are made in order to remedy the weaknesses observed to offer better teaching context for our young generation.
Cultural Incidents in Literary Texts: A Case Study of Edward Morgan Forster’s A Passage to India (1924)
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2017) Oueld Ahmed, Fatima
The present research investigates the importance of integrating culture in teaching literary texts. It highlights the place of culture in foreign language methodologies. Although culture teaching becomes a necessity in foreign language teaching, it is still dealt with as an adjunct in Algerian foreign language classrooms. This study proposes a model which integrates culture in teaching literature in foreign language classrooms. To achieve our aim, we apply the theoretical concepts proposed in the “Culture Bump Theory” to the analysis of cultural differences in E. M. Forster‘s A Passage to India. By conducting a didactic analysis, the following work clarifies the need for integrating cultural elements in teaching foreign languages. Teaching culture is necessary in raising cultural awareness as well as in eliminating the frustration, disconnection and cultural misunderstanding
Culture Shock in Barbary Captivity Narratives: Royal Tyler (1797), John Foss (1798), Maria Martin (1807) and James Leander Cathcart (1899)
(Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi-Ouzou, 2015-06) SEDDIKI Rabia
My research paper intends to study the culture shock in Barbary captivity narratives: Royal Tyler’s The Algerine Captive (1797), John Foss’ Journal of Captivity and Sufferings (1798), Maria Martin’s History of Captivity and Sufferings (1807), and James Leander Cathcart’s The Captives, Eleven years a Prisoner in Algiers (1899).This paper shows that the narratives are the experiences of a passage, the crossing of a boundary that allows for an encounter with otherness to take place. Addressed to their home culture, the narratives deal with the captives’ cultural shock upon their first encounter with different and strange culture, in uncomfortable situations interacting with people who are not born nor bred Americans. Being cut out from their culture, the captives were at a complete loss since their host culture involved unusual norms of cultural understanding such as, religion, food, clothing, gender roles, customs and traditions. Therefore, my research paper shows the circumstances and the reasons behind the captives’ disorientation. Moreover, it explains how the captives endure and depict their life within Barbary through highlighting the distinct features between America and Algiers through an ethnocentric standpoint.
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in Cinematographic Adaptations: A Postcolonial and Intertextual Study
(Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi-Ouzou, 2014) CHERIFI Ahcene
The present dissertation is entitled “Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe in Cinematographic Adaptations: A Postcolonial and Intertextual Study”. It focuses on the relationship between Defoe’s first novel and some of its cinematographic adaptations notably Luis Buñuel’s The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1952), Jack Gold’s Man Friday (1975), and Robert Zemeckis’s Cast Away (2000). Taking its bearings from intertextual dialogism inflected towards cultural materialism, this work deals with these filmic adaptations as intertexts that engage in a dialogue with their source text from which they are brought into existence. Taking this approach into consideration, I have argued that the cinematic adaptations under scrutiny are not exact copies that attempt to replicate their source; far from that, the three films reinterpret, discuss and even criticize Defoe’s first novel. One has to note that the historical background has played a crucial role in shaping these adaptations in specific direction. Hence, the films are highly influenced by their social, cultural, economic and political environment. In addition, there is the impact of the filmmaker who unequivocally frames and shapes his film according to his aspirations, culture and ideology. Despite their sharp differences, Buñuel’s, Gold’s and Zemeckis’s respective films carry the same traditional pattern of the castaway story established in Robinson Crusoe. The studied cinematic adaptations contribute, in their own ways, to perpetuating the Crusoe myth. To carry out the ultimate purpose designed for this research, I have appealed to the concepts of a host of theorists like Mikhail Bakhtin (1984), Raymond Williams (1977), Gérard Genette (1997) and Graham Allen (2000).
Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story and Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker: Theatre of the Absurd or Theatre of Language?
(Mouloud MAMMERI University of Tizi-Ouzou Faculty of Letters and Humanities, 2012-05-29) BERDJANE, Ouiza
This dissertation is a discursive study of two twentieth-century plays which have been characterized as absurdist: The Zoo Story by Edward Albee and The Caretaker by Harold Pinter.The study examines the dialogues of the characters from linguistic perspectives in order to account for the way the language of the characters causes violence effects in the two selected plays, and the way the characters’ identity expressed by their discourse.The study seeks also to give more insights on those assumptions in the existing critical literature which insists on the ‘devaluation of language’ and ‘meaninglessness’ of dialogues in the two plays. The analysis in this study is based on Grice’s theory of Conversational Implicature, the constructionists’ assumptions about the identity formation, and the pertinent literature on the issue of violence. The analytic observations about the data focus on the various ways in which the characters fail to observe the Cooperative Principle and its four attendant Maxims, namely the maxim of quantity, quality, relation, and manner, and on the generated meaning from the chaaracters’ flouting of the previous maxims. The study reveals that the identity of the characters is expressed thanks to the playwrights’s violation of the Cooperative Priciple. The violence effects in the two plays also turn to be the result of the playwright’s effective use of the Cooperative Principle by elaborating the characters’ flouting of the four conversational Maxims. Finally, the study demonstrates how the critics miss the interesting point about the unconventional use of language in their assumptions about the language in the Theatre of the Absurd, and how the Theatre of the Absurd deserves to be labeled The Theatre of Language.
English Language Assessment in the Algerian Middle and Secondary Schools: A Context Evaluation.
(Mouloud MAMMERI University of Tizi-Ouzou Faculty of Letters and Humanities, 2011) AOUINE, Akli
The following work tackles the issue of assessment in the Algerian Middle and Secondary schools. More specifically, it seeks to examine the place of assessment and the way it is implemented in the Middle School syllabuses and textbooks. Also, two of the Secondary School course books; that is, Getting Through and New Prospects. In addition, it evaluates the BEM and the BAC tests to check whether they meet the criteria of a good test and the corresponding levels of their items in Bloom’s taxonomy. To this end, we have conducted our research which is a ‘context evaluation’ in the light of the ‘Mastery Learning Approach’ and ‘Bloom’s Taxonomy’. Accordingly, our study identifies the main weaknesses and strengths of the aforementioned materials. First, the syllabuses stress the importance of assessment above all formative assessment. This is a noticeable positive point. However, we found that the syllabuses do not include comprehensible hints which show how such formative assessment including self-and peer assessment can be carried out systematically and effectively, nor do they (syllabuses) include assessment criteria specific to each year of study, or well-elaborated grading system, etc. As regards the Middle School textbooks, we have noted that the latter include assessment sections made up of many activities. This is a good aspect. Nevertheless, the textbooks adopt the three Ps approach and their assessment activities are designed in a summative way and they often overemphasise language structures and discrete-point items. Moving to the two Secondary School textbooks mentioned above, it appears that they merely include assessment grids with a multiplicity of items to be ticked by the students. Last but not least, the BEM and the BAC tests are mainly of discrete-point items and they particularly target the lowerorder skills and they lack reliability and construct validity. Finally, we have tried to include suggestions that can be used as remediation for the insufficiencies of the materials we evaluated.
Family and Anti- Family in Selected Novels by Thomas Hardy
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2009) BENSAFI, Fatiha
This dissertation is an attempt to examine Thomas Hardy’s Marxist ideas in tackling family issues. It implies that the author did not stand apart from the new thoughts brought by socialist philosophers, and venture to say that he was their mouthpiece. Hardy’s questioning of the bourgeois family and the heralding of the Marxist views such as Engels’ in the Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, are conveyed by portraying families completely different from the Victorian cliché. Hardy’s portrayal suggests his divergence from the views of that time. He seems against the idealisation of the family which he depicts as an economic institution governed by the patriarchal –capitalist ideology and man’s dominance. I have tried to make it explicit that Hardy’s criticism of the capitalist system and the Bourgois family has known a gradual development. I have suggested that it is through the Mayor of Casterbridge , Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure that one can trace the ways Hardy both scrutinizes and questions the Victorian family within a capitalist ideology by examining family kinship and human relationship. In addition, conjugal problems and family burden are two major elements tackled in the novels stated above. The analysis of the Mayor of Casterbridge is an attempt to show the author’s anxiety about the system which gives the husband the absolute right to sell his wife and daughter. In the study of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, I have tried to render the author’s overt protest against capitalism and patriarchy by which the lower class is exploited by the bourgeoisie and children by their parents. The analysis of Jude the Obscure is devoted to the examination of Hardy’s overt attack on the marital laws and his seemingly advocation of free cohabitation and the abolition of the family. Yet Hardy’s confusing attitude can be grasped in the three analysed novels. In the Mayor of Castrebrigde, the author presents the most striking scene in the Victorian literature; the wife Sale scene. It is thanks to this that one can notice his hostility towards the patriarchal system. Nevertheless the end of the novel reveals Hardy’s enculturation of the same Victorian values. Indeed Farfrea’s marriage with Elisabeth –Jane is a genuine picture of a bourgeois marriage. In Tess of the D’Urbervilles, the author portrays Tess as a fallen woman who deserves punishment, and in Jude the Obscure, though at the beginning, he exposes liberal ideas concerning women and family, at the end, the author reproduces the same Victorian ethics which he has criticised earlier. This is due to the weight of the rigid values which the novelist cannot transcend easily.
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.

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