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Item Tragic disruptions and subversive discourse in late victorian fiction : jude the obscure, the picture of dorian gray, and heart of darkness(2012) Haddouche, HassinaThe 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 tonesItem Otherness and the absurd in joseph conrad's and albert camus's fictional works : a comparative study(2012) Mameche, FadhilaIn 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