Magister

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://dspace.univ-boumerdes.dz/handle/123456789/57

Browse

End date: 2014Has files: Yes

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 17
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Modernism in james joyce's ulysses and wole soyinka's the interpreters : a comparative study
    (2008) Bourahla, Djelloul
    The purpose of this dissertation is to challenge the orthodox view of Modernism as an art dismissive of politics, history and social commitment and as exclusively oriented towards style, technique and cosmopolitanism. By comparing James Joyce's Ulysses and Wole Soyinka's The Interpreters, we aim at redefining European and African modernism through taking the colonial and postcolonial contexts into account and employing a neo-Marxist critical approach to assess the political implications of the Modernist mode of writing. The first chapter is a review of the traditional and contemporary perspectives on Modernism as a mode of writing and as a worldview. The second chapter deals with the historical, social, cultural and personal backgrounds of James Joyce and Wole Soyinka. In the third chapter, we discuss the form of Joyce's Ulysses. We find that the different innovative techniques in the novel evince a subversive political vision. The fourth chapter studies the content of Joyce's Ulysses. We discuss those aspects of Ulysses that can be read as a diagnosis and critique of the social ills brought to Ireland by British imperialism, capitalism and the Catholic Church. The fifth chapter is concerned with the form of Soyinka's The Interpreters. We contend the salient features of Soyinka's style are motivated by context. We explore Soyinka's language as part of his critique of 'late capitalism' and neo-colonialism in Africa. In the sixth chapter, we analyse the content of The Interpreters. We find that Soyinka is highly concerned with the socio-historical background of post-independence Nigeria, essentially through capturing the state of disillusionment that characterizes his society. In the conclusion, we find that the Modernist mode of writing is quite capable of producing powerful subversive political statements through its form and content, but that this subversion can have its limitations and little political impact as the ordinary reader is not equipped to appreciate it and as the two writers fail to suggest alternatives to the order they undermine.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Tragic disruptions and subversive discourse in late victorian fiction : jude the obscure, the picture of dorian gray, and heart of darkness
    (2012) Haddouche, Hassina
    The main concern of this dissertation is a study of ideological subversion and containment in three late Victorian novels, i.e. in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. This study shows how subversive thrusts are contained in three main scenes: social in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, cultural in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and economic and political in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Our purpose is thus to bring out the tragic disruptions resulting from such discursive clash in the light of three poetics: Raymond Williams's theory of Cultural Materialism and his theory of Modern Tragedy, and Michael Bakhtin's theory of Dialogism. The theory of Cultural Materialism and that of Dialogism are mainly used to underpin discursive practices. Cultural Materialism helps us identify and assess the subversive strategies employed in these novels. The dialogues and events of the novels reveal the degree to which Victorian power is based on predation, deceit, and hypocrisy; however, this power is subject to undermining by dissident and subversive voices within Victorian society; yet this subversion is soon contained. The triumph of containment over the forces of subversion is more a mark of the late Victorian pessimism than a reinforcement of the Victorian power. The subversion-containment dialectic will show this at the level of themes, plot, and setting. Bakhtin's Dialogism will shed light on subversion at the level of language; in other words, the analysis of language in the light of Bakhtin's dialogism shows a subversive discourse which places the protagonists in a position of social antagonism to the Victorian power. As for the theory of Modern Tragedy, it is used to bring out how the containment of subversion is effected. Through characterization, we shall show the conflict of the tragic protagonists (anti-heroes) with their society. In the last analysis, the subversion of social issues in Jude the Obscure, of aesthetics in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and of politics in Heart of Darkness-whose initial aim is to effect drastic social changes-result in a consolidation of the Establishment's values at the expense of the pioneers of progress. Their ultimate failure takes on tragic tones
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    The theme of exile in James Joyce's a portrait of the artist as a young man (1916) and Frank McCourt's angela's ashes (1996)
    (2012) Guedouari, Lamia
    Irish writers, James Joyce and Frank McCourt, have long been considered "voluntary exiles". From a different approach, the present research work is an attempt to argue that the theme of exile in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes (1996) is, first and foremost, "involuntary and unhappy", and culturally coded. The study is tackled from two perspectives: historic (Kerby A. Miller), and literary (Edward Said and Hegel). Drawing on Miller's theory, we shall argue that Irish emigration has always been thought as "involuntary and unhappy exile". urthermore, the concept is deeply rooted in Irish History, culture, and particularly Irish Catholic culture. It goes as far back as early Christian Ireland. Exile, as "involuntary and unhappy", attained unbearable degrees in post-famine Ireland, and worsened in post-colonial Ireland because of inflexible Irish authoritarian practices. Gaelic Ireland with its three pillars, Catholicism, Nationalism, and social conventions, has done much to embitter Joyce's, McCourt's, and the majority of Irish writers' lives. Each of these institutions demanded absolute conformity, and any kind of deviations led directly to exile, physical or spiritual. By studying Joyce's A Portrait (1916) and McCourt's Angela's Ashes (1996), we shall also emphasize the continuity of 'exile' as a literary theme and fate in post-colonial Ireland till the 1950s. Both Joyce/Dedalus and McCourt/McCourt share many similarities (process of maturation, reasons behind departure, and fate) which are far from being a mere coincidence. On a different but connected level, we shall also throw light on positive aspects of the condition of exile. Edward Said's perience-based theory about exile stipulates that "involuntary exile" and "defensive nationalism" are directly proportional to each other. Said argued that exile empowers the feeling of belonging and nationalism. The exile acquires 'new eyes' with which to see the history of his country. From exile, Joyce and McCourt dedicated themselves to invent a "New Ireland" by recalling the brilliance of Irish culture through their autobiographical writings. A Portrait and Angela's Ashes are full of Irish myths, legends, songs, and nature beauty that make the process of reading very much appealing and attractive. Studying the positive aspects in A Portrait and Angela's Ashes, we shall in the process, highlight the central characteristic of exilic writing, dialectics. Joyce's and McCourt's relationships with Ireland as reflected in their autobiographical novels are one of a love-hate. Other exilic literary characteristics that can be mentioned at this level include: the autobiography genre as "the text of the oppressed", a quest for a home, and Irish history and Irish Catholicism as prerequisites for the understanding of Irish Literature. As a conclusion, conceived differently from exile, Joyce and McCourt succeeded in creating a 'fashionable' image about Ireland through their writing. Key word: Irish studies; the Irish tradition of exile; Ireland, exile, and nationalism; Ireland, exile, and autobiographies/memoirs; Ireland, exile, and globalisation; James Joyce and Frank McCourt
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Prospero and caliban in robinson crusoe, kim, heart of darkness, and a passage to India
    (2014) Boulfekhar, Saida
    Taking Shakespeare's Prospero and Caliban as a paradigmatic binary and basing its theoretical approach on cultural materialism and postcoloniality, the present study attempts to address the issue of the coloniser-colonised relationship in four canonical novels in English literature, namely Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Rudyard Kipling's Kim, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and Edward Morgan Forster's A Passage to India. The study is conducted in the light of the British Empire's development starting from its incipiency up till its downfall in the twentieth century. This study examines the way in which the changing historical context of British colonialism bears on each writer's vision of colonial relations as reflected in his narrative through his characterisation and his dramatisation of the colonial encounter and, at the same time, attempts to track signs of consistency in the four writers' conceptions of colonial relationships so as to verify the hypothesis that despite the varying writers' views and despite the unquestionable influence of the changing colonial context, the colonial encounter is consistently conceived as a strong to weak and superior to inferior relationship; a core that proves immune to the historical changes of British expansionism
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Poetry and secularism wallace stevenss "supreme fiction
    (2006) Benamzal, Farid
    Wallace Stevens offered poetry that he called the "supreme fiction" as a substitute for Christianity. The credibility of the "supreme fiction" as a subject of belief is conditioned by its adherence to reality: abstractness, change and pleasure. Our attempt in this dissertation is to look more closely to Stevens’s "supreme fiction" by analyzing these conditions. The first chapter consists of a historical glimpse of the loss of belief . It also deals with the different reactions of the modernists, including Stevens, to the sense of meaninglessness and aimlessness caused by the loss of belief. In the second chapter, I discuss the idea that the credibility of the "supreme fiction" depends on its adherence to reality where it springs. The third chapter is devoted to abstraction as a condition for the supremacy of the "supreme fiction". Abstraction means the rejection of classical myths, Christianity, Rationalism and Romanticism. The fourth chapter deals with Stevens’s notion of change. Change for Stevens is the power of the mind to transform reality. Change also means the ability of the poet to incessantly make new "supreme fiction". The fifth chapter is an attempt to show whether the pleasure the "supreme fiction" can offer is to the detriment of its commitment. In my conclusion I have tried to sum up the results of my investigation by insisting on the secular character of the "supreme fiction." I also insist on the fact that the " supreme fiction" is an attempt to cover reality with aesthetics to make it bearable rather than to escape it
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Otherness and the absurd in joseph conrad's and albert camus's fictional works : a comparative study
    (2012) Mameche, Fadhila
    In my research work I have chosen to look at four texts by two writers with a worldwide readership: Joseph Conrad and Albert Camus. Both Conrad and Camus are considered revisionist imperialists because they are caught in the contradiction between the orthodox Eurocentric view of Empire and their own –rather liberal-humanist. Their malaise lies in their intellectual predicament as well as in their spiritual instability both stemming from their civic status (one is an adopted Briton and the other is a reclaimed Frenchman). I have followed in this comparative study a Postcolonial and a neo-Marxist (Macherey) approach; two approaches that have revealed the political stands of Conrad and Camus. My comparative study is concerned with two of each writer’s fictional works: Heart of Darkness and L’Etranger on the one hand, and Lord Jim and La Chute on the other. In my thesis, I insist on the fact that Conrad and Camus were both fully aware of the negative impact of imperialism. Yet owing to historical and personal circumstances, they were caught in ambivalent stances. In order to resolve this dilemma, Conrad and Camus resorted to flight into metaphysics (the absurd in particular) yet without much conviction. I therefore attempt to shed light on the essential ambiguity that pervades their (unwitting) colonial discourses, laying emphasis on the ideological ‘strife’ within their minds. My outline comprises five chapters. The first chapter examines the socio-political background of both authors. It investigates their resemblances and differences in terms of biography and ideology. In the second chapter, I investigate Conrad’s and Camus’s stereotypical representation of the other in Heart of Darkness and L’Etranger respectively. At the same time I argue that their texts owe much to the colonial discourse, a discourse fraught with containment and condescension. In the third chapter, I attempt to show that Conrad’s and Camus’s discourses are characteristically ambivalent. This chapter further explores the tortuous complexity of the two writers’ worldviews through the analysis of some formal fictional aspects. Chapter four is concerned with Conrad’s and Camus’s escapism as appears in Lord Jim and La Chute. It also focuses on the ideological quandary faced by the two authors. Chapter five stresses the narrative strategies deployed by Conrad and Camus in their attempt to resolve the dilemma of the colonizer-colonized binary opposition. In the conclusion I argue that the kinship between Conrad and Camus can be accounted for by thematic similarities which, in a sense, are determined by nearly identical backgrounds. More explicitly, Conrad’s and Camus’s refusal to recognize –against their intellectual grain– the other as an equal, led them to adopt diversionary schemes. In other words, by escaping history, Conrad and Camus turn a blind eye on the struggle for recognition of the colonized as full-fledged human beings. As a result of their ideological muddle, Conrad and Camus fall back on artistic expressiveness, a saving grace which makes their readers overlook their political shortcomings. It is precisely their esthetic achievements which postcolonial critics and writers use as a stepping stone in their re-appraisal of Conrad’s and Camus’s works