Département d'Anglais

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Eco-Marxism, Deep Ecology and Wilderness in Joy Harjo’s Selected Poems: An Ecocritical Reading
(Université Mouloud Mammeri, 2022) AIT MEDJBER Katia; FAHEM Zahia
Based on Joy Harjo’s poems “A Map to the Next World”(2000) from an eponymous book, “For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet” and “Talking with the Sun” from Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (2015), “ Remember” and “ In Praise of Earth” from How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems (1975-2001), this dissertation intended to demonstrate the way the poet portrays nature and its relation with humans. Adopting Ecocriticism approach and its tropes, this research attempted to analyse the forms and the contents of the poems with reference to the poet’s cultural background. The poet dealt with ecopoetry to illustrate the nature of the relationship between the human and the non-human world. Indeed, the present dissertation attempted to explore the main aspects of Eco-Marxist on the poem “A Map to the Next World”. Harjo reminded us through her poem that modern capitalist ideologies caused alienation from nature, leading to the destruction of the environment. This paper discussed also the concepts of deep ecology, self-realization and ecological egalitarianism. This study showed that Harjo’s poetry contributed in connecting humans with their natural world, and created better understanding of how all living creatures work together to maintain life on earth.
The Representation of President John Adams in Tom Hooper’s Miniseries and Adams’s Life Writings: A Comparison with the American Cultural Figures of his Time
(UNIVERSITE MOULOUD MAMMERI TIZI-OUZOU, 2013) DIABI, Fatma
This dissertation studies the representation of President John Adams in Tom Hooper’s miniseries John Adams and the latter’s life Writings. It explains why Hooper seeks to rehabilitate John Adams in the context of the terrorist attack of America in September 11, 2001. Following a historicist approach, four major findings are reached. One John Adams stands for a political republicanism that modern America seems to have forgotten. This political republicanism is contrasted with both economic republican, the popular republicanism, which is used into screen in the present day America. Two, John Adams is represented as a self-made man whose success story is built on high ideals rather materialism. His association with the American Dream is meant as a criticism of contemporary America’s material economic version of the American Dream. Three, John Adams and his wife Abigail illustrate gender relations based on equality not subordination. In a sense, the portrayal of the Adamses is addressed as a critique to the Bush family as another example American presidential family. Four, the miniseries shows strong belief in politics and diplomacy to solve domestic and international problems. John Adams is portrayed as a politician with a low profile. His leadership is not authoritarian since it is marked by delegation of power. Five Adams is used to rehabilitate New England and move particularly, Massachusetts as a central of American politics. Through Adams, Massachusetts and New England it is the American Revolution that Tom Hooper goes back to, to celebrate American ideals. Six, Adams’s politics is described as being non-partisan. This constitutes an indirect critique of partisanship politics of contemporary America. II
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Investigating Attitudes Toward Literature and Movies: Second Year LMD Students of English at UMMTO
(University Mouloud MAMMERI, Tizi-Ouzou, 2016) MORSLI, Lynda
This research probes into the Algerian students’ attitudes to culture in movies and literature within the context of the literature and film studies classroom. Inspired by critical categories from cultural anthropology, and deploying a mixed method approach combining classroom observation, interview and questionnaires. It shows that students’ attitudes are hugely shaped by the native culture, most notably, the culture of shame which makes most students resist the predominantly popular culture of British and American movies, as well as the erotic dimensions of classical novels such as Jane Eyre. The degree of resistance varies from student to student according to the amount of exposure to the target culture and reading experience of the students. the latter, move generally from cultural resistance to cultural negotiation
The Representation of the ‘Other’ (the Poor and Women) in Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2011) BEDRANI, Ghalia
So many studies are carried out on the issue of otherness. Some are carried out in terms of skin and color by which we mean racism. Others are brought in terms of human geography and this is what Edward Said calls ‘Orientalism’. By this, he refers to the westerners’ thought that all that is from the East is inferior and that the Orientals need the westerners’ intervention to civilize them and to shed light on their darkness and obscurity. There are also other criteria of otherness like class and gender othering (the poor and women). The following research paper is, therefore, about solely class gender minorities. The otherness of these categories is related to the circumstances of each period of time. Our task is limited to studying the status of the poor and women during the Victorian Era. During that period, there were so many paradoxes and issues in the social life. The bourgeoisie was enjoying life in total wealth and prosperity while the lower class was suffering and starving. This was what led to a big gap between classes at that time. Though they played a great role in enriching the others through hard work, the poor were marginalized and remained in a state of poverty. At the same time, women stayed at home and cared for the family while men dominated all the public affairs. The process of othering of either women or the poor is explained from several perspectives, but the most influential ones are supported by psychoanalytic studies like those of Freud. Julia Kristeva studies the process of othering in different times using Freud’s categories as a basic reference for her theory. For her, before Freud’s findings about the unconscious side of human beings (ego) nobody knows that he is a stranger to himself. After Freud’s “Conscious” and “Unconscious,” people start to understand that strangeness is inside themselves; thus, we are all strangers to ourselves. In the same perspective, this dissertation aims to explain the process of othering in Gaskell’s North and South from the psychological and existential sides. In other words, we aspire to approach Kristeva’s ideas about the Other v as they are developed in her book Étrangers à nous-mêmes to Gaskell’s novel in order to study the issue of otherness. By doing so, we have reached three results. First, the poor are marginalized due to their state of poverty whereas the rich are strangers to themselves due to their peculiar behaviour towards the poor who generally push them by their human side to discover their harshness and savageness. This is the case for the heroine Margaret Hale who helps the protagonist John Thornton to change his mind and to leave out his state of unconsciousness. Second, we realized that men are not the only oppressors of women. In North and South, the poor women are othered by the rich ones due to many reasons like the difference in the social status and blind jealousy. Finally, we deduced that all humans, men or women, poor or rich, are in reality strangers to themselves; thus, they are the oppressors of themselves. Most of all, we realized that the women are oppressed at the domestic level in the same way as the workers are oppressed at the work place.
The Representation of the Renaissance Woman/man in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and Othello
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2010-10-20) LEGOUI, Kahina
This modest dissertation has for purpose the exploration of the major Renaissance themes in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (1596) and Othello (1603). It aims to examine Shakespeare’s representation of the Renaissance woman/man through his Renaissance Venetian characters. To fulfil our study, we have relied on the New Historicist theoretical assumptions that stress the importance of the social, historical and cultural contexts in the study and interpretation of literary texts. Indeed, the Renaissance context of the plays under study determines largely Shakespeare’s dramatic representation of the Renaissance females and males. We have divided our work into three chaptars. We have devoted the first chapter to the general historical background that represents a necessary step for our analysis. We have introduced first the main aspects of the Italian Renaissance focusing on the emerging philosophy of Humanism and Individualism with its new perception of man. Then, we have given an insight to the Elizabethan/ Shakespearean England, stressing the English interest in the Italian Renaissance. In the second chapter, we have tried to examine the Renaissance woman/man as a representative of the divergent Renaissance themes of subjectivity, individual will, independence, self-interest, tradition, communal ties, and social conventions. In the third chapter, we have examined the emotional life of the Renaissance woman/man in relation to the prevailing social conventions about racial difference. Finally, we have concluded that the Renaissance woman/man lives in a state of ‘inbetweeness’ embodying the ambivalent attitudes and thoughts of the transitional period. Therefore, the Renaissance woman/man can never be identified as an individual who has completely transgressed the impositions of the collective organic life.
Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill: An Analysis of their Feminist Views
(Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou, 2006) SEDDIKI, Hafida
In this dissertation, I suggest to research the feminist themes in two of the most important essays in British literature : Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and John Stuart Mill's On the Subjection of Women. Nevertheless, before analyzing their essays, I have shed light on the main important factors that awakened women's consciousness; the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. History showed us that the factors mentioned above influenced greatly women, motivated them to question their Status, and therefore, to ask for their rights. Under these circumstances, Mary Wollstonecraft sprang out in order to defend women's rights. She wrote her pamphlet entitled A Vindication of the Rights of Women, where her ideas were fully expressed. Wollstonecraft's Vindication has long been recognized as a central text in late eighteenth century British or even Anglo-American feminism. It offers a powerful critique of women's education and the assumptions surrounding marriage and family life. Moreover, even more important are the complex discussions of gender difference and its elaboration of the ways in which construction of feminity, both at an ideological level and in terms of conduct of everyday life, serve the interests of male desire. Her work is significant also because of possibilities Of change in gender order and a transformation of the sexual hierarchy is both desirable and possible, which serves to differentiate feminism from a mere concern within the woman question. John Stuart Mill was another advocator of women's rights; he wrote an essay entitled On the Subjection of Women. Mill asserted that women needed a larger ethical framework to change laws that denied their rights, because they were deeply imbedded in contemporary ethical beliefs pertaining to marriage and family life. Therefore, during the nineteenth century, feminists aimed to change the laws pertaining to women including married women's property rights, access to divorce, and child custody. In addition to this, Mill claimed that women's suffrage is an essential step toward the moral improvement of humankind. The essay written by John Stuart Mill was considered as the best for women's demands. Mill described the status of women in Britain as being marginalized. He argued that the legal, political and cultural limitations on women were part ofbygone era characterized by command and obedience. Therefore, women, he argued, have the right to be educated as men and work hand in hand with men in order to contribute in the evolution of society. It follows from what is mentioned above that both Wollstonecraft and Mill were appealing for the equality of the sexes. Thanks to their ideas, great reforms had been achieved in different fields: education, politics and the laws relating to marriage.
New Historicist and Cultural Materialist Study of Witness, For Richer or Poorer, and Amish Grace
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2014) TAFROUKHT, Zouhra
This dissertation is concerned with the study of the Amish portrayal in three American films, namely Witness (1985), For Richer or Poorer (1997), and Amish Grace (2010). The aim of my work is to demonstrate that these texts are the product of their respective socio-political contexts. They deploy the Amish religious minority for the purpose of criticizing and reproducing the American mainstream values. The study is divided into three chapters. The first one consists of the historical background whose major goal is to provide a better understanding of the Amish history and culture as well as their place amidst the mainstream American culture. As for the second chapter, it discusses the image of the Amish as a critical metaphor of mainstream America in Witness and For Richer or Poorer. Witness uses the Amish culture as a vehicle for reinforcing and articulating the 1980s conservative agenda. In the same vein, For Richer or Poorer invokes the sense of the Amish as Other and exotic only in order to reinforce the centrality of the dominant American culture’s self. The last chapter deals with the Amish image as a supporting metaphor of mainstream American values in the film Amish Grace. It shows the shift in the dominant culture’s attitude and vision of the Amish minority as a film subject. The Amish values that are manifested after the Nickel Mines School Shooting tragedy are appropriated by the mainstream majority as a healing mechanism for the post 9/11 United States of America.
Prejudice, Violence and Death in Alex La Guma’s A Walk in the Night and Richard Wright’s Native Son
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2011) SALEM, Amar
This thesis is concerned with the comparison of two writers from two different countries but almost the same period of time: Richard Wright (1908-1960), a black writer from the United States of America, and Alex La Guma (1925-1985), a Coloured writer from South Africa, Both writers had first-hand knowledge about their communities; Richard Wright’s Native Son and Alex La Guma’s A Walk in the Night reflect the plight of the South African and American blacks, a plight which has as “symptoms” racism, segregation, and injustice. The aim of our study is to investigate these two literary racial protest works and bring out the major points in common. The aim is also to show how similar socio-political systems, namely Jim Crow and Apartheid, affect the content and even the form of their two works. In fact, in spite of the remote distance between North America and South Africa, Native Son and A Walk in the Night hold many affinities; they are satires on the obnoxious systems of Jim Crow and Apartheid. They deem these systems responsible for the plight blacks suffer from. The study will be divided into 1) the contextual part and 2) the analytical part. The first part comprises two chapters: the first one is about the historical background of both Black America and South Africa, and the second one is about what I consider as biographical affinities between the two authors. As for the second part, it begins with the third chapter which deals with the way the black man is represented in the perception of the white man; he is regarded less than a human being and very close to the high mammalian species. He is perceived as savage, primitive, and uncivilised. The fourth chapter deals with violence, mainly against the black man, which is considered as the outcome of the negative representation of the Negro and the prejudice held against him. Poverty and degrading living conditions imposed on blacks are regarded as one part of the white man’s violence. The second part of violence is a physical one carried out again by the white man against his black victim. The third part consists in the harmful ways and the aggression of the blacks worked against each other. The fifth chapter deals with the predominance of all the senses of death in a land of oppression; no room is left for the feelings of love and compassion. i Finally, it is worth mentioning that the thesis is an attempt to bridge the gap between the African and the Afro-American literatures in a racially unjust context by highlighting the literary affinities resulting from the hard conditions confronted by both the American and African blacks.
The Other in Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2010) LACEB, Rafik;
The Great Gatsby is a canonical work of literature. It is found in most of the university curricula and high school programs. In sum, it is a classic of the 1920s. Gatsby is a reflection of that period of gendered, ethnic, and racial tensions. The main characters of the narrative are all from old white established Anglo‐Saxon backgrounds. It is described to be about the suppression of otherness and change required to maintain the illusion of identity. The novel has long been noted for its author’s regional obsession with the East and the West. My aim in the present dissertation is to realize a thematic study of the novel, by looking for the way women, Jews, and Blacks and Orientals are placed in the position of “Other (s)” in relation to the identity of the main characters; an identity the author identifies with, barricades, and tries to maintain its supremacy. As the United States ended the settlement of the West with the closing of the Frontier, the beginning of the twentieth century required Americans to look for a new sense of manifest destiny. The twenties are renowned for their intolerance and broad‐scale nativism. The Great Gatsby is said to be the perfect novel of the Jazz Age, which mirrors its immediate issues. This dissertation is divided into four chapters. The first one is an attempt to put the novel in the context of various tensions which reflect the conservative and nativist character of the decade. The chapter also informs the reader about the major literary orientations and current of the time. It ends with the way the novel is liable to be approached from the point of view of looking for the discourse of Orientalism within it. Chapter II is about the demonstration of Fitzgerald’s ideal notion of male identity which is to be a member of Tom Buchanan’s group. Tom is the stereotyped masculine character who is even “more of a man than” Nick. Nick refuses identification and/or associations with women. Women for Nick/Fitzgerald are weak, irresponsible, absurd, dishonest, and destroyer. Chapter III focuses on the overt and oblique expressions of Fitzgerald’s anti‐ Semitism and dislike of ethnic immigrants. Ethnic immigrants were often linked with the organized crime, and constituted‐by their half whiteness‐a threat to the purity of Anglo‐Saxon identity and the homogeneity of the Nordic element. Nordics for Fitzgerald are responsible for “all the things that go to make civilization”, and are set‐that is my argument‐ in opposition to the Semite or Jewish immigrant who is the anti‐thesis of development. Chapter IV pays attention to the Fitzgeraldian ideal of whiteness and its supremacy, domestic and foreign. The major threat to “civilization going to pieces” is to end by getting “intermarriage of blacks and whites”. This chapter explains the way Fitzgerald associates Gatsby with blackness, and how Gatsby reflects the “natural segregation” of the two races. However, the second half of this last chapter is a suggestion of the study of the novel in relation to the global Western myth of the superiority of whiteness. Blackness in the United States of the time was parallel to what the colonial subject meant to imperial powers. The focus is on references to the brotherhood with English imperialism and to the early imagined geographies of the rising imperial States. N.
The Idea of Post-War America in Selected Novels by John Steinbeck and John Dos Passos
(2011) KHOUDI, Mohamed Amine;
This dissertation attempts to study the idea of the ‘Other’ according to John Dos Passos (1896-1970) and John Steinbeck (1902-1968). We have analyzed the position of the two authors towards major post-war issues. Throughout our thesis, we have referred to the numerous social, racial, gender, political, and economic issues that arose as a result of the aftermath of the First World War. Our appropriation of the New Historicist theory has enabled us to make a historical and literary diagnosis of John Dos Passos’s case and John Steinbeck’s fiction. We have endeavored to demonstrate that both Dos Passos and John Steinbeck share the same idea, position, and vision towards a fragmented, class-based, ‘white supremacist’ and capitalist post-war America. To reach our objective, we have selected some ‘target’ novels that will be decisive throughout our analysis. These novels are Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat (1935), Of Mice and Men (1937), The Grapes of Wrath (1939), and John Dos Passos’ trilogy U.S.A (1938). The study of Of Mice and Men and Dos Passos’ U.S.A is investigated from the perspective of racial discrimination and gender issues. Indeed, the Hispanic community of Tortilla Flat, the unique black character of the novella Of Mice and Men ‘Crooks’ ,and the two Italian Italian-born anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti experience the same hatred, racism, and discrimination. In addition, we investigated women status within post-war American society. This study also explores another post-war theme,i.e, the struggle proletariat vs. big business, this proletariat theme is an influential part of Dos Passos’ trilogy U.S.A and Steinbeck’s epic novel The Grapes of Wrath. Our ‘proletariat’ reading attempts to demonstrate that the two authors share the idea that post-war America is composed of twonations; one of them belongs to the rich and privileged and the other one to the have-not and the powerless
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.
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.
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Aimé Césaire’s Une Tempête and Dev Virahsawmy’s Toufann as Intertexts
(2010) HALIL, Houria
This dissertation is entitled “William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Aimé Césaire’s Une Tempête and Dev Virahsawmy’s Toufann as Intertexts”. It aims to investigate how William Shakespeare, as a Western bard, influences and gives an impetus to the non-Westerners mainly the postcolonial writers and playwrights to follow his path, and sometimes, to respond to his negative portrayal of the non-westerners. The post-colonial writers tend to answer back what Shakespeare embedded about non-westerners in his works in general and The Tempest in particular. Accordingly, in this research, we have investigated in The Tempest, Une Tempête and Toufann how Aimé Césaire and Dev Virahsawmy were influenced, positively and negatively, by William Shakespeare. In order to realize the objective of this research, we have opted for two important literary theories. These theories concern the Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogism, and the Martinican psychiatrist Frantz Fanon’s postcolonial theory. We have divided our dissertation into two chapters. In the introduction we have introduced and given some explanation of the theme of our research including the review of literature in which we have mentioned some works and critics that in one way or another dealt with the three playwrights and studied them from different perspectives. Afterwards, we have introduced our problematic which concentrates on the analysis of how the three playwrights clash over the referent of colonialism and all what the latter implies on the one hand, while on the other hand, Césaire and Virahsawmy through their adaptations have stylized to a great extent the English national icon “Shakespeare”. To analyze this theme, we have divided our research paper into two chapters. In the first chapter which is entitled Shakespeare, Césaire and Virahsawmy: Life, Times and Influence, we have provided the reader with useful information about the historical events which took place in England, Martinique and Mauritius when, respectively, The Tempest, Une Tempête and Toufann were written and performed. The second chapter contains two sections. The first section which is entitled Césaire and Virahsawmy as Hidden Polemics explains the clash and the conflict of ideologies among the three playwrights that can be shown at the level of the setting, characters and themes, as well as language whereas the second section is devoted to the analysis of how Césaire and Virahsawmy have stylized Shakespeare by imitating his way of writing and borrowing from him many aspects related to the form as well as to the content in relation to the setting, characters and themes, in addition to language. Finally, in the conclusion, we have given an overview about the ideas that are developed in the present dissertation at the same time we have confirmed our hypotheses which have been introduced in the introduction.
Paralysis and Resistance in James Joyce’s Dubliners and Mohammed Dib’s La Grande Maison
(university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou, 2010) FERHI, Samir
The following dissertation explores the theme of paralysis and resistance in James Joyce’s Dubliners and Mohammed Dib’s La Grande Maison. However, hinging upon the new historicist theory, this comparative study will reveal that although the two writers chronicle two different periods of their peoples’ history, their preoccupations in their early works were not different. On the one hand, the Irish writer James Joyce wrote Dubliners in a period characterized by the dominance of Irish Catholicism and the British imperial system which in his view created Ireland’s paralysis, on the other hand, the Algerian writer Mohammed Dib also chronicles in his first novel, La Grande Maison, the oppression and the social, economic and political upheavals to which his countrymen were subjugated during French colonialism. It is also attempted to prove that in spite of the paralysis image which dominates and reoccurs in both texts, Joyce like Dib has given alternative ways how to resist and surmount paralysis. At the end, I hopefully endeavoured to prove that the authors’ visions and conceptions about the idea of resisting paralysis remain different. For, in the case of Joyce’s characters, though at the end of each story he did not give literal indications whether spiritual liberation will be attained or just paralysis will ultimately prevail, yet he makes it evident that in order to resist and escape from paralysis, Irish people have either to die or exile themselves physically or spiritually from Dublin’s paralysis. On the contrary for Dib’s characters, the only way for them to overthrow and surmount paralysis is through national and political consciousness by using revolutionary means. In order to achieve this, I divided the dissertation into two parts, each part contains two chapters. The first chapter deals with the historical background of Ireland and Algeria, while the second chapter is devoted to short biographies of the authors by putting a great emphasis on their educational and artistic careers. The second part also contains two chapters; the first chapter will be concerned with the analysis of the theme of paralysis and its motifs. While in the second, I will deal with attempts of these characters to resist paralysis by taking into account Joyce’s and Dib’s differing, or opposing conceptions on the idea of overcoming paralysis.

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