رسائل الماجستير اللغات الأجنبية

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Literature and Morality
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2006) Belkermi, Sameh; Bensemmane, M'hamed (Directeur de thèse)
The Beautyful Ones Are Not yet Born reveals Armah as a moral writer who cares to bring to the fore Ghana's past ethical values, those which can form the basis for a sound nation to be built after independence. Through a scatological imagery which employs the conventional symbol of dirt, the Ghana of the 1960's is described by Armah as a country that has gone astray, and has sunk into corruption. The latter overwhelms the whole Ghanaian society and is basically related to the political system adopted by the ruling factions. Armah's attacks on Nkrumah's socialism are essentially meant to show the misuse of a political system supposed to protect the underprivileged and to stress the need for political morality. Notwithstanding his harsh criticism of Ghanaian politicians and citizens alike, however, Armah insists on the negative impact of the colonial experience on Ghanaians. Colonialism is shown to have destroyed the serenity of a once stable and coherent society, and to have planted the seeds of corruption in it. Armah's modernist treatment of the theme of corruption is certainly loaded with symbolism. In effect throughout the novel runs the leading symbol of dirt and ugliness for corruption, and that of cleanliness and beauty for morality. This is to illustrate Armah's assertion that ``the beautyful ones are not yet born'', and Ghana is not likely to be a genuine democracy in the forseeable future. Even the coup that closes the story fails to reveal such ``beautyful'' individuals, a fact that reflects the failure of the change in the structural character of society to end corruption, and which shows an authorial scepticism about the theory of social morality.Nor does the theory of personal morality -the regeneration of the individual - however promise much. Armah, at the end of the novel, posits that even the cleansing of the man in the sea does not turn him into one of the Beautyful Ones. Beauty, according to Armah, belongs to the past and the promising future of Ghana depends on its return to this past. Armah's solutions for the Ghanaian predicament reside in the lost ``union'' which used to exist in the past before colonialism. Armah sees that this idea of ``union'' - the `Ibibirman', that is the gathering of all black people- should be implemented. The move towards the realization of a communal society forms Armah's moral message. Evidently, the idea of `egalitarian society' appears clearly and as early in Armah's writing career, in such an essay as `African Socialism, Utopian or Scientific?
Analyse du comportement interactionnel des déficients intellectuels <>
(Université d'Alger. Faculté des Lettres et des Langues, 2006) Chaibi, Hassiba; Immoune, Youcef (Directeur de thèse)
Edith Wharton and René Girard’s Sacrificial Crisis in The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2006) Loulia, Nabila; Amrane, Nadjia (Directeur de thèse)
“Social and Cultural Crisis in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country” is a work based on René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire. Recent critical works have demonstrated a renewed interest in the works of Edith Wharton, focusing on varied aspects of her works, and trying to rehabilitate her place in the literary ground. In the hope of adding to this rehabilitation, this work is centred on a very specific subject, which is the mimetic desire, and the sacrificial crisis advocated and explained by René Girard in his works Violence and the Sacred., Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World and Deceit, Desire and the Novel, Self and Other in Literary Structure. Edith Wharton wrote at a critical period of change in the American society, and her works, especially The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country, reflect the aspects and consequences of this change. In this work, I tried to show that the sacrificial crisis as advocated by René Girard exists in these two novels, I divided the work into four chapters, the first one containing a social, cultural and literary background, the second dealing with the social aspect of the novels and the form of the sacrificial crisis in the social groups and their relationships. The third chapter deals with the cultural aspect of the novels and the crisis in the cultural order described by the author. In both second and third chapters, I showed the different cases of mimetic desire and the results it leads to, as I described the situation prior to the sacrifice, namely the sacrificial crisis itself. In the last chapter, I dealt with the aspects of violence that characterise the society described by Wharton and the ultimate step in the crisis which is the sacrifice of the victim held to be the V cause of all the chaos and violence which prevail in the society. In the same chapter, I tried to give a literary analysis, and show the link between Wharton’s subject matter and the literary genre she uses in her novels, such as the novel of manners, realism, and some aspects of naturalism. Finally, I concluded the work with an assessment of the applicability of Girard’s theory of mimetic desire to the two selected novels, and gave a small comparison between my readings of the same.
(RE) WRITING (HI) STORIES
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2007) Hannachi, Imene; Deramchia, Yamina (Directeur de thèse)
This dissertation is primarily concerned with a comparative study between two novelists writing in the same language but belonging to two different countries, and different periods of history. The first -the main focus of our study- is J.M. Coetzee a writer of the 20th century belonging to the South African context and the other is Daniel Defoe from 18th century Britain. The main scope of this study is concerned with the intertextuality involved in Coetzee's novel Foe -through Defoe's Robinson Crusoe- and the way it relates back to Coetzee's South African historical context. Our intention is to show the different strategies used in Foe that inscribe the book in the field of postcoloniality. As many critics have remarked, the novel "resists any clear interpretation". Different layers of meanings co-exist in the novel and inform its complexity and its distancing from the South African context. The overlapping strategies present in the novel create a kind of maze that confuses the reader and blurs the critic on his way of interpretation. Two main strategies of fiction writing are used in the construction of the novel and generate two overlapping layers of meaning in Foe. The first layer relates back to intertextuality with Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, at a first degree, and Roxana , at a second degree. The second layer is related to aspects of postmodernism. Both layers represent the key to reach the hidden meaning of the narrative which is directly linked to the problematic of the context of South Africa. This dissertation purports to be an original contribution to the comparative studies on Coetzee's work. The major aim of this study is to contribute in the open debate on Coetzee's works by positioning itself within the critical literature linking Coetzee's work to its historical context. It is to be inscribed in the ongoing reflections on literature and writing and their interrelations with History: How Truth is found in Fiction and conversely Fiction in Truth. As a first attempt to introduce this author in Magister research in the University of Algiers we hope to initiate the interest in this field for upcoming scholars in our University.
The Search for an Ideal Society in the African Novel
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2007) Babkar, Abdelkader; Bensemmane, M’hamed (Directeur de thèse)
The subject treated in this dissertation is about Ayi Kwei Armpah and Ngugi wa Thiong‘o as novelists writing in order to raiuse the consciousness of their respective societies or nations in relation to what went wrong and has generated the present anomy as far as the socio-political and economic conditions are concerned. The latter is characterised by oppression at the political level and the disintegration of the tradtional African societal organisation which used to emphasise the common good. This social organisation has been shaped now after the modern trend of individualism and the Western commodity culture. Armah and Ngugi begin first by depicting the status quo in Ghana and Kenya respectively ; in their respective endeavours, they express their dissociation from this very status quo to project a vision, stemming from their ideologies, of an ideal society whereby the mode of conduct would be to contribute to the common well-being. Thier ideologies are a synthesis of their traditional thought (the Akan in the case of Armah and the Gikuyu in the case of Ngugi) and the Western world view, though Armah quite singularly, tends to deny any Western value that would influence positively his society. Armah’s ideology of the ‘way,’or reciprocity, could be considered as the oppositional voice to Western hegemony. He claims it to be superior to the Western view or the ‘gleam’ as he calls it in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. Ngugi’s ideology for its part combines traditional culture that clings to land and the Western philosophy of Marxism which, contrary to Armah’s belief, can share a common ground with the African communalistic spirit. At the narrative level, Armah and Ngugi’s narratives, because of their version of the novel genre that straddles the oral as well as the print tradition of storytelling, are meant to seek, following Fredric Jameson’s demonstration in his The Political Unconscious, resolutions of a contradiction of the social organisation in Africa. Thier narratives resist, yet at the same time benefit from the Western form of storytelling. This also reflects the writers’ resistance of the nation-state political form and yet, because of its Janus-face, accepting it and defining their nations in accordance with. Also, following Karl Mannheim’s Ideology and Utopia, the writers ideologies are, like utopias, incongruent with the status quo. Thus they constitute an ideal that is meant to be approximated because they embody the form of society wished for. Although Armah’s depiction of the status quo in his first three novels The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Fragments and Why Are We So Blest ? give the impression of disillusionment, they incorporate an attempt at explaining and analysing the African situation and the African psyche. Both at the narrative and the ideological levels, in Two Thousand Seasons and The Healers, Armah seems to be engaged in the rendition of the primal wisdom in his society and the creation of new values, a new perspective incorporated in his ideology of the ‘way.’ Ngugi adopts a similar approach in his later novels Petals of Blood and Devil on the Cross, by depicting the unsatisfying situation in Kenya and analysing at the same time the underlying causes that led to it. Meanwhile adopting his society’s traditional culture (shedding light especially on the resistance movement) and Marxism as an ideology, he sketches characters who are involved in raising the consciousness of their fellow citizens about the ideals of a communalistic self-contained Kenyan nation.
THE EFFECT of TEACHER FORM-FOCUSED FEEDBACK on EFL LEARNERS`ACCURATE USE of the SIMPLE PAST in COMPOSITION WRITING
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2007) Herizi-Mili, Nassira; Bensemmane, Faiza (Directeur de thèse)
This study examines the relationship between teacher form -focused feedback and the development of EFL learners' accuracy in composition. Basically, it addresses one main research question: what is the effect of the teacher form–focused feedback on EFL learners' accuracy in using the simple past tense in composition writing? The study adopts a combination of methods (descriptive, experimental and comparative) and multiple research instruments (pupils' written data, pre-and post questionnaires and pre and post grammar tests). We used ten secondary school pupils as experimental and control subjects and examined their performance in three narrative essays and the revisions they made as a result of teacher’s form-focused feedback and unfocused feedback over four weeks. In addition, we examined the extent to which learners made use of teacher correction and the effect of grammar correction on the development of the experimental subjects’ accurate use of the simple past tense (the focused form in teacher correction). The results obtained from the experimental group were compared to those of the control group who received unfocused correction. The study also investigates the relative delayed effects (two weeks after the experiment) of form-focused feedback on learners’ accuracy in the focused structures by examining and comparing subjects’ use of the simple past in the first and second term essays, on one hand, and their scores in the pre and post grammar tests on the other hand. The present study's findings seem to lend support to the effective positive role of the form-focused feedback in improving learners’ accurate use of the focused forms in writing in the short term. As for the relative delayed effect, the type of feedback under scrutiny was found to be more effective in improving learners’ accuracy in the focused forms in grammar oriented- tasks than in composition writing. According to the subjects’ responses to the post questionnaire, conditions such as students’ need to develop their writing accuracy, a positive attitude towards correction and motivation to repair their errors, teacher’s form-focused feedback and the ample time learners need to write and revise their writings were found to be helpful for learners to make more beneficial use of teacher feedback.
POWER AND DISSIDENCE IN CHINUA ACHEBE’S A MAN OF THE PEOPLE AND ANTHILLS OF THE SAVANNAH
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2007) Chenane, Hizia; Bensemmane, M’hamed (Directeur de thèse)
السلطة والمعارضة في روايتي A Man of the people و Anthills of the Savannah ليشنوا أشيبي. في هذه الرسالة ننقاش موضوع أزمة الحكم ومفاهيمه للسلطة والقوة في افريقيا في فترة ما بعد الاستقلال من خلال روايتين للروائي النيجيري شينوا أشيبي. الروايتان هما على التوالي Man of the people و Anthills of the Savannah. القضية المركزية التي تطرحها الروايتين هي أن نمو الدول الإفريقية بعد الاستقلال كان مرهونا بأشكال وتناقضات معقدة قد خلقت معنى من المعضلات الشخصية والاجتماعية للمفاهيم والهويات. توسعت الروايتان في قضايا اجتماعية وسياسية عولجت سابقا في رواية No longer at Ease، ولكنها واصلت لتعمّق التساؤلات الماضية بشأن التصادم الثقافي بين القيم المعرفية الإفريقية والثقافة الغربية المستوردة ونتائجها السلبية على الدول الفتية. أكثر نقدا في هذه الروايتين هو التركيز على قضية الحكم وتأثيرها المدمّر على رجال السياسة الجدد والمسمّاة بالطبقة المثقفة التي وجدت نفسها بعد الاستقلال الوريث الشرعي للمستعمر القامع. ظهر أشيبي مؤكدا لمفاهيم فرانس فانون وادوارد سعيد، مفاهيم تاريخية واجتماعية عميقة الدراسة تبيّن العجز الكبير للمثقفين الأفارقة في رسم هيكل واضح المعالم للتواصل بين الماضي العقائدي والحاضر العصري من جهة، وكذا عجزهم أيضا لوضع صورة مترابطة لأنفسهم كممثلي للناس الضعفاء من جهة أخرى. رواية أشيبي A man of people قدمت أسباب ونتائج أزمة السلطة. سمحت الوضعية لأشيبي إبراز فشل المثقفين في تأسيس رؤية نظام مناسبة تستطيع أن تضم فهم واضح للوجود الاجتماعي. في إتباع نفس الأفكار، رواية Anthills of the Savannah جاءت كتصور لحل متكامل للقضية المطروحة سابقا. انتقلت الرواية بتحدي لتعد بشيء جديد ومختلف من حيث البديل لتستنطق وتعّوض في نفس الوقت الحوار الفاسد للنظام السائد. مشروع أشيبي يتمحور في خلق من فوضى الفترة معتقد الأمة الدولة الذي سوف يكافح لاسترجاع مقل الأعراف الشعبية الماضية الضائعة، وليؤسّس من هذه الرواية الأخيرة مرجعا أخلاقيا عاما للأمة. هذا النموذج في عمومه يتطلب مبدأ قرامشي للاندماج الاجتماعي الذي يدعو إلى نطاق واسع لفلسفة المشاركة الوطنية، والتي تصاغ عبر إدراك عميق ومحسوس للوضعية الاجتماعية للجماهير. لإكمال مشروعه الكلي بناء الأمة، قدّم أشيبي ضرورة إمكانية تأكيد السند الأخلاقي والكمال الثقافي للمرأة الإفريقية. موقف بياتريس ككاهنة لإلاهة الأرض في أساطير ايبوا، وكمرأة مثقفة عصرية لخّص سعي أشيبي إلى وضع نظام لتفكير راديكالي جديد قائم لتشكيل قوة اجتماعية أكثر إتحادا، أين تقف المرأة كجزء أساسي في المجال الكلي للسلطة. إتقان مشروعه، قدّم أشيبي تضمنا بأن الحل لأزمة الحكم لفترة ما بعد الاستقلال في إفريقيا يمكن تحقيقه ليس عبر استيراد نظريات صراع ومقاومة غربية. لكن عبر إصلاح مبنى على انسجام مع وقائع وتاريخ الارض. إن محاولته لتقدم مخططا إفريقيا نموذجيا في Anthills عبر مثال أسطورة الحكم العقائدي لشعب ايبوا هي إشارة للأهمية المستمرة للإسهامات المعرفية للمجال الاجتماعي والسياسي للحكم السائد. من خلال كل هذا، حاولنا برهان أن إسهامات أشيبي لقصص ما بعد الاستقلال للتاريخ الإفريقي قد اتخذت مجالا جديدا من أجل بداية تاريخية حقيقية. وجدنا أنّ وسائله للوعي والتحليل الذاتي في اقتفاء قصته لمجتمع ايبوا، ظهرت فعالة ونقدية بقوة. في هذا الصدد اقترح نظام أشيبي لبناء الأمة بأن الشريعة الجديدة عليها أن تعتمد ليس فقط على إعادة التفكير راديكالي للعقيدة ولكن أيضا على إعادة تخطيط للأشكال التي تقدم فيها الثقافات الإفريقية. جوهريا، العقيدة لم تخاطب من أجل الرجوع لوجود أسطوري ولكن أساس بهدف استنطاق فجواتها الثقافية والتاريخية وإيجاد تصورا مناسبا للتجاوب بين الماضي العقائدي والتحديات المعاصرة التي تواجه القارة السمراء. في النهاية نحاول قراءة مشروع أشيبي الروائي كقالب ثقافي متكامل لرصد الحياة الاجتماعية والسياسية في إفريقيا ما بعد الاستقلال. طبعا لا يستطيع الأحد منا نقد وسائله في معالجة مثل هذه القضايا الواقعية المعزولة بسهولة. ربما لم يمنح أي مخططات سياسية كاملة أو وصفات نظرية من أجل بناء اجتماعي وإتحاد سياسي، ولكن كشف التأثيرات السلبية للسلطة الفاسدة على الجماعات الضعيفة. كروائي، أشيبي متلهف أساسا إلى إلهام وعي شامل يمكن من تحقيق الأحلام الإفريقية في الوحدة والكرامة الاجتماعية.
Haunted Hunters Moby Dick and Heart of Darkness
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Letters, 2007) Bouranane, Aïcha; Amrane, Nadjia (Directeur de thèse)
This dissertation consists of a comparative study between Moby Dick (1851), written by the American writer Herman Melville, and Heart of Darkness (1902), written by the Polish author Joseph Conrad. In spite of the distance which dissociates those two works both in time and in space, a number of affinities make them similar to a significant extent. Thus the present study offers to bring the various affinities, but differences as well into light, and discuss them thoroughly. The comparative approach to the two narratives is based on Mikhail Bakhtin's theory which considers that a text is an absorption of and a reply to another or other texts. Our study may also be supported by Julia Kristeva's concept of intertextuality or the transposition of one system of signs into another. In this sense, our comparative analysis will first discuss the themes and worldview which are unfolded through the two works. After that, the stylistic and symbolic aspect of the two works will be studied. Finally, both similarities and differences noted between the two narratives along the precedent analysis will be assessed in the light of Harold Bloom's theory of influence. Thus we shall explain the nature of the relationship between Moby Dick and Heart of Darkness or how that Conrad has been influenced by Melville's Moby Dick. In other words, we shall demonstrate how that Heart of Darkness shows both the expression of Melville's strong influence on Conrad and the latter's attempt at freeing himself from the haunting spirit of the White Whale.
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE LECTURE COMPREHENSION &NOTE TAKING STRATEGIES OF SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BLIDA
(2008) Missoum, Maâmar; Boukhedimi, Yasmine (Directeur de thèse)
For many years (1995-2002), the Department of English of the University of Blida witnessed low rates of academic achievement of students preparing an English Degree. An analysis of the second year students' course grades in academic years 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 and data from a preliminary survey with some teachers reflected signs that the students were experiencing learning difficulties. This situation prompted an investigation of a suspected factor behind those difficulties, namely, comprehending and taking notes from lectures. Listening to lectures and taking notes from them are the most widely used academic skills in the English Department. The main purpose of the present study is to examine the students' lecture comprehension and note taking strategies. Effective listeners employ certain strategies to understand lecture content and note down useful information. The review of the literature sets the theoretical framework for the study by defining key lecture comprehension and note taking strategies. Five research tools (observation of authentic lectures, a test of lecture comprehension, the subjects' lecture notes, survey questionnaires and an analysis of instruction in listening and note taking in the English Department) were used to investigate the strategies the subjects use to comprehend lectures and take note from them. Triangulation is necessary to moderate the various potential threats to the validity of the data. The findings obtained seem to indicate that most of the subjects were not using efficient lecture comprehension and note taking strategies, and that listening instruction was not providing adequate training in these strategies. Recommendations are offered to improve the ability of students in Algerian English Departments to learn better from lectures.
A QUEST FOR HAPPINESS WILLIAM MORRIS’S NEWS FROM NOWHERE AND WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS’S A TRAVELER FROM ALTRURIA AND THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2008) Bensaou, Selma; Amrane, Nadjia (Directeur de thèse)
This research work entitled A Quest for Happiness is a comparative study of the utopian romances of the English writer, William Morris (News from Nowhere), and his American counterpart, William Dean Howells (A Traveler from Altruria with its sequel Through the Eye of the Needle). Both writers, in reaction to their 19th century competitive and ugly societies tried to imagine a fairer and more beautiful world. This work is a comparison of the two writers' respective representations of what an ideal society is or should be, with a view to exploring and pinpointing the similarities and differences between the two on the basis of three major ideas which are: Egalitarianism, Agrarianism, and Art. This constitutes our thematic concern in this research. This comparative study will also examine the aesthetic side of the romances as a specific literary genre. The similarities and differences in the romances are explored in the light of the Cultural Materialist theory (essentially as developed in Raymond Williams's seminal work Culture and Society). This approach will enable us to link the romances to their 19th century context, on the one hand, and to open new venues of interpretation more relevant to the 21st century social, economic and even ecological issues, on the other hand. This study is divided into four chapters. The first chapter entitled "The Egalitarian Land" discusses the egalitarian doctrines, and then moves to a close study of the text showing the two writers' egalitarian views. The second chapter entitled "The Agrarian Garden" looks at agrarianism in the contexts of 19th century England and America, a doctrine which helps in the establishment of a more egalitarian society to replace the unfair 19th century social system. A study of the text follows to show the agrarian stance of the two utopias as tackled through the dramatization of incidents and situations in the two romances. The third chapter entitled "Of Beauty and Soul" highlights the artistic side of Morris and his influence by the social and art critic Ruskin. Morris advocated "popular art", an art performed by, and accessible to the common man. This idea he shared with Howells. This part, on the other hand, insists on Howells's more markedly religious stance. The fourth and last chapter deals with the aesthetic study of the two romances. It looks at some major literary devices such as setting and atmosphere, characterization, plot and point of view. It shows how far both Morris's and Howells's romances conform to the genre and prove adequate to the presentation of their ideal society.
The Role of oral practice in improving the learners' acquisition of word stress
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2009) Mekhoukh, Sohila; Khaldi, Kamel (Directeur de thèse)
This experimental study investigates the role of the teaching of English word stress through three modes of pronunciation/speech practice to see if this can improve the learners' performance. We noticed that the production element in the Foreign Languages Department (the English Section) at the University of Setif is not satisfactorily taken into account, and the practice activities done in the language lab are limited to imitation and do not allow for communicative oral practice of the targeted pronunciation feature. Thus, our research question concerns whether the use of controlled, guided and free pronunciation-oriented speaking practice help our students produce word stress more accurately. Questionnaires and tests were the main research tools used in this study. The teacher's questionnaire, the subjects' questionnaire, and pre-test's results helped us identify and diagnose some of the students' problems with word stress and the potential causes. Students participated in either experimental or control group, study English as a foreign language. Material used for instruction is planned to be production-oriented and the lessons were of a practice type. A variety of tasks including listening and spelling awareness activities were also designed, added to that, an integration of three speaking practice modes (controlled, guided, and free) simultaneously, taking into account the learners' difficulties even with any features related to word stress, such as syllable division and vowel reduction. The pre-test/post-test data indicated that our teaching strategy facilitated the improvement of word stress production among these students to some extent. The experimental group exceeded the abilities of the control group.
Understanding Success and Failure at Tests Via Students’ Causal Attributions
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Humanities and Languages, 2009) Gasmi, Maha; Cherchalli, Safya (Directeur de thèse)
Research on causal attributions (Weiner, 1974, 1992; Covington, 1992; Graham, 1991, 1994) has shown that students’ perceptions of the causes of their successes and failures will affect their expectations, and thereby their futureachievement behaviour. The present study aims to gain insights into how students in the English Department at the University of Algiers interpret their perceived successes and failures at tests. Of special interest were differences in attributions between “successful” and “less successful” students. A total of eighty-one students participated in this study at the beginning of their third year. Data were collected by means of an open questionnaire, a rating scale and a group interview. The results revealed that students attribute their perceived successes mostly to effort and interest (internal factors). On the other hand, failure was explained by teacher’s severity in marking and test difficulty(external factors). This is a classic example of the “ego-serving bias” (Miller and Ross, 1975), according to which individuals are predicted torespond with more internality to success as compared to failure in order to protect their self-esteem.The results also showed that statistically significant differences were found between “successful” and “less successful” students in their causal attributions for failure. “Less successful” students seem to have an external locus of control when accounting for their failures, which suggests an apparent lack of autonomy. Another noteworthy finding is that “successful” students were found to manifest a high degree of achievement motivation, reflected in their high attribution of success to effort. The findings of this study suggest that students should learn to take responsibility for their achievement outcomes. Moreover, “less successful” students should be taught to attach more value to effort as a cause of academic success.
Exploring English Language Teachers’ Teaching Style
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2009) Sail-Terki, Hind; Bensemmane, Faiza (Directeur de thèse)
The present study is an attempt to investigate the teaching style of ten university language teachers teaching in the English department of Saad Dahleb University at Blida. It tries to identify the most dominant teaching style of these teachers and to see how aspects of learner-centredness operate within this dominant teaching style. This study is exploratory. It makes use of three research instruments: two questionnaires to teachers and a questionnaire to students. The aim of using questionnaires is to assess the teachers' dominant teaching style from both teachers' and students' perspectives and to examine how learner-centred teaching principles are reflected in their teaching style. The questionnaire designed for teachers and for students include 26 items and it was adapted from an instrument initially used by Rong et al. (2005), called the Adapted Principles of Adult Learning Scale (APALS). After analysing the responses of teachers' and students' questionnaires and comparing them, we noticed that teachers and students have matching views regarding the teachers' dominant teaching style. According to the teachers questioned, 7/10 teach in a traditional way while 9/10 also teach in a traditional way from the students' point of view. But the analysis of teachers' 'traditional' style of teaching revealed some learner-centredness that was evident from the teachers' responses to the 26 items of the APALS questionnaire and from their responses to the 6 questions of the second questionnaire. The findings revealed that there are some learner-centred elements in the teachers' instruction in the sense that they tried to relate learning to students' experiences and establish a climate of trust between them and the learners. In addition, the students were encouraged to ask questions and get involved into discussions and debates especially in the Literature modules. One implication of these findings is that teachers should be encouraged to adopt a more learner-centred teaching style. According to recent research, self-reflection plays an important role in identifying and modifying teachers' personal teaching style (Grasha 1996, Conti 2004). So, we provided three self-reflection activities suitable for university teachers of English. These self-reflection activities may help to identify the attitudes, values and beliefs that teachers associate with their teaching practices and to find alternatives and better their teaching style.
MORAL RESPONSIBILITY AND TRAGEDY IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S LORD JIM AND CHINUA ACHEBE’S NO LONGER AT EASE
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2009) Adjout, Asma; Bensemmane, M’hamed (Directeur de thèse)
This dissertation approaches the problem of morality and social responsibility as two related elements which have been a theme treated by many writers, notably in the Western world and Africa. I set out to discuss here two novels, namely Conrad's Lord Jim (1900) and Achebe's No Longer at Ease (1961), which provide a platform for discussion of morality and its relevance in the modern context. This research work attempts to bridge cultural, social, and historical differences separating the two works, and brings to light the universality of morality, and the importance attributed to it by writers anxious to reassert traditional moral values in a degenerate present. The changes which have ushered in the modern world have had an important impact on traditional morality. The basic precept of morality, crystallized in 'The Golden Rule': 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you', is increasingly challenged by the modern conception of the individual's right to pursue his own happiness; moral behaviour does not always involve self-sacrifice for others, but when it does so, we are more able to recognize its worth and admire its beauty. Glorification of money and materialism, chaotic transformation under the impact of speed, hugeness and standardization, intellectual and scientific revolutions shaking prior conceptions of human nature, are characteristics of the modern word, in the face of which traditional morality is losing its hold on the individual. Moral failure is the main theme addressed in the two novels. The two authors investigate the reasons for this failure, without, however, bringing clear-cut conclusions. The two approaches used in this work, namely, the socio-ethical and the tragic, is an attempt to cover the possible reasons of the protagonists' moral failure as advanced by the two authors. While Conrad and Achebe present a universal view of morality, i.e., the need to assert such notions as social responsibility and self-sacrifice, the socio-cultural factors play a crucial role in shaping the protagonists' destinies within their respective communities. While the two authors 'agree' on the basic tenet of morality, they are aware of the changes in the societies they live in. Western society as portrayed by Conrad is characterized by moral anarchy and skepticism. Conrad is aware of the difficulty of keeping to traditional moral values in view of the new modern realities, and deplores the Western society's loss of fortitude and spirituality. On the other hand, African society as portrayed by Achebe is losing its traditional cohesion due to its encounter with Europe, and is in search of a more tenable modernity. Achebe is aware that the path towards change is inevitable, but warns against a blind adoption of modern Western cultural precepts, and points out the importance of maintaining in some degree traditional identity and moral values. In view of the similarities highlighted, and despite the differences noted, Conrad and Achebe transcend the disillusionment imposed by a chaotic present, and attain the stature of moral teachers.
ON MOVING THE CENTRE OF NARRATION AND DISCOURSE
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Letters, 2009) Chaabane Ali, Mohamed; Bensemmane, M’hamed (Directeur de thèse)
This dissertation is intended chiefly to study Ngugi’s literary response to the Western culture of domination, which manifests itself in a set of hegemonic views about the non-Western communities generally, and the African in particular. While forming the ideological basis for the growth of classical European Empires overseas, this culture for him still continues to impose its standards on the global order, and thus on the post-colonial world. In his most proletarian novels, Petals of Blood, Devil on the Cross, and Matigari, Ngugi has a “literarypolitical” project of “revisiting” the cultural and political authority of the imperial powers. This project is mainly intended to restore his people’s freedom of thought and action so as to resist the power of the hegemonic interests of Western-oriented international capitalism. Ngugi’s presently discussed novels, by bringing to the fore a set of heated issues bearing on history, culture, and the nation, reverse colonial binarisms in order to combat the hegemonic interpellations of the neo-colonial regime. In Petals of Blood, the idea of history is brought to prominence as Ngugi argues strongly for a radical reinterpretation of Kenya’s working people’s history. In fact, Karega, evidently the mouthpiece of the writer, stresses that the rewriting of Kenya’s history is an important undertaking, but by no means sufficient, to support what he foresees as the class struggle waged by the “wretched of the earth” against the neocolonial regime run by the new “bloodsuckers”. Similarly, Ngugi, through such characters as Nyakinyua and Abdulla, argues clearly for the significance of Kenya’s “oral history” and the heroic history of Kenyans’ resistance to the imperialist “marauders” for today’s struggle which, at all events, runs the risk of being overwhelmed by a false conception of Kenya’s both precolonial and colonial past that is touted by a corrupt ruling elite. In his next novel Devil on the Cross, however, much emphasis is placed upon the indigenous culture of the population, even though Ngugi is very often thought to prioritise political and economic struggles over cultural retrieval. This novel interestingly shows that we can never diminish the instrumental value of culture as a political weapon against imperialism it its neocolonialist stage. This study makes thus the claim that the indigenous culture of the masses can be used in the very definition of the downtrodden classes, to say nothing about the use of such aspects of folk culture as songs, proverbs, and traditional stories as a means of communication with the audience, of whom the “illiterate” masses form the majority. In addition, DOC displays a concern for certain forms of cultural hegemony exercised by such institutions as the school, the media, and the Church. In this novel, indeed, my contention is that the neocolonial ideology is supported in part by the imposition of the Western cultural 7 models on the African people. Consequently, Ngugi’s disapproval of the white culture is an explicit attack on the whole system of the neocolonial power. But, at the same time, nowhere in his novel is there any explicit call for the return to some pristine pre-colonial culture. In Ngugi’s opinion, this atavistic view is not founded at all. Ngugi’s first novel in exile, Matigari, solidifies Ngugi’s immense project of “de-centring” the Western hegemonic political discourse by expressing the felt need for the regeneration of the post-colonial African nation. Ngugi decries violently the currently established Kenyan nation because of its degenerate state that manifests itself clearly in the falsity of foundations upon which it is based. Matigari, the hero of the narrative, represents the daunting challenge of the establishment of an egalitarian society, and the fact that he ultimately falls back on a military action indicates strongly that the nation cannot be “regenerated” unless an armed rebellion of the masses, similar to the epic Mau Mau insurrection, breaks out once again. In general, Ngugi’s literary -and political- project of redefining the narrative discourse about Africa in the post-independence era has to be envisaged within the theoretical framework of postcolonialism and the political framework of his Marxist-based ideology. Ngugi revisits in his works a number of crucial concepts, which include history, culture, nation, with a very clear objective in mind: the political, economic, and cultural autonomy of the Africans and the non-western people at large. This objective has to be achieved, as indicated, whether explicitly or implicitly in all his “popular” novels, as they have come to be called, by the downtrodden people’s resort to armed resistance.
An Afro-centrist Perspective of cultural affirmation and social progress in p'Bitek's Song of Lawino and Song of ocol and Ngugi's I will marry when I want
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2009) Boucherifi, Boualem; Bensemmane, M’hamed (Directeur de thèse)
This dissertation studies the militant socio-cultural and political positions of Okot p'Bitek, as well as Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Ngugi wa Mirii. The focus is on Okot's long poems Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, and on the Ngugi play I Will Marry When I Want. S L and S O truly epitomise Okot's philosophy of 'Africa's Cultural Revolution'. In S L, the poet charges his epic character, Lawino with the mission of presenting, interpreting and eventually defending the traditional aspects of her community. Equipped with a remarkable charisma, eloquent words and a lucid vision, Lawino expresses her sympathies and anxieties through describing Acoli food, dances, aesthetics, medicine, beliefs, rituals, religion and many other aspects. S L constitutes a solid argument centred on the idea of a 'search' for an African identity. As this dissertation suggests, Okot's cultural insights impress even non-Acoli readers, because of Lawino's particular use of figurative language, similes, metaphors, irony, mockery and satire. Its publication in 1966 inspired other African writers to evoke the richness and originality of their cultural heritage. In his rejoinder Song of Ocol, Okot sketches Lawino's husband like an adamant figure embracing Western values, ideals and culture. If Lawino stands for traditionalism, Ocol represents the African educated 'élite' attracted by modernity and the European lifestyle. Ocol's stand point is hyperbolically dramatised by his negation of his own culture, his own people, his wife and even himself. The caricature is carried further when Ocol takes the advantage of his Western education to become a ruthless political leader striving for power and money. Instead of promoting justice and progress, Ocol shocks his audience by his indifference to poverty, disease and ignorance. By making him a symbol of Africa's cruellest dictators, Okot criticises the hypocrisy of Africa's national leaders and points at their failure to meet social aspirations. I W M by the two Ngugis deals with the socio-economic reasons for the down fall of the Kiguunda family. In accordance with the 'people's theatre' or the 'theatre of the oppressed', the dramatists portray the life of the Kiguunda family who fail to pay back a bank loan. Their situation is complicated when their land is sold at auction, their daughter falls in prostitution and Kiguunda sinks into alcoholism. In fact, Ngugi is implicitly accusing the western capitalists and their local collaborators of impoverishing peasants and workers. Thus, the two Ngugis attempt to re-define the priorities of the national independence through their political activism in Kamiriithu theatre with peasants and workers. Adopting a socialist ideology, the dramatists describe a kind of class struggle between the Kiois and the Kiguundas, i.e., the bourgeois and the peasants. While Okot lays the stress on Uganda's need for a cultural revaluation, or indeed revolution, Ngugi is more concerned to consider culture as a basis on which to construct a just and democratic society in post independent Kenya.
The Development of the National Security Concept in American Foreign Policy
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2009) Rouabhia, Mohamed; Deramchia, Yamina (Directeur de thèse)
Much research has been done on the inter-influence between the international situation in which the United States lives, and its conduct in both domestic and foreign policies. This dissertation falls into this category of research. Some critics of the United States' foreign policy, such as Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, see that American policy is not primarily determined by the international events, but rather by the lust for power and economic interests. Other justifications such as security and the promotion of freedom in the world are used as a mask behind which these real motives are concealed. Others, like Hans J Morgentheau and Kenneth Waltz, see that American foreign policy conduct does and should always depart from the circumstances of the international system and the relative position of the United States in it. The degree to which these circumstances affect national security is one of the major considerations on which foreign policy is conducted. That is, a great part of foreign policy is carried out in such a way that would make the world a safe place for the United Sates. To do so, there has to be a picture of the world and its relation to American national security. Therefore, whenever world circumstances change in nature, this picture will change with it. This is the main issue of this research. This study aims at analyzing the influence of the world circumstances on the development of the concept of national security in the United States throughout three major periods: the isolationist period, from the nineteenth century to World War II; the Cold War era, form the end of World War II to the late 1980's; and the post-Cold War era, from the late 1980's till the recent years. Throughout the history of the United States' foreign policy, there have been different views about the extent and the way in which international circumstances affected the safety and integrity of the American people and their territory. From the early years following the American Revolution to the 1940's, most Americans saw that the survival of their people and land could only be guaranteed by getting away of the conflicts of the Old World(Europe), on the one hand, and preventing the old colonial powers from reasserting their presence in the Western Hemisphere.(The American Continents). During the Second World War, this idea was affected by circumstances. The fact that the War, a world conflict that took place beyond the Atlantic, directly endangered American national security led to a break with the trust in isolation as an effective tool to ensure national security. After the War, the security of the United States was believed to require an involvement in international affairs and inevitable alliance with other powers to influence the course of events in such a way that would prevent the new danger, Soviet Union, from affecting the United States. After the international threat of the Soviet Union disappeared, a new one came to the surface: this is international terrorism. After its emergence as a major threat, Americans started to believe that their security could only guaranteed if they destroyed the capacity of every enemy that could strike before even this enemy really attempts to threaten the survival of the American people and land. Thus, every change on the world scene carries with it a new conception of national security. This change in conception, though it can be exaggerated or distorted by foreign policy makers and the media, is mainly based on the evolution of the world around the United States.
WOMENS' POSITIONS AND ROLES IN CONTEMPORARY GHANA IN AMA ATA AIDOO'S NOVELS
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Arts and Languages, 2009) Messaoudi, Lila; Bensemmane, M’hamed (Directeur de thèse)
An examination of the existing scholarship on African women writers shows that the question of negotiating the past and the present in the contemporary period is one of the crucial discussions in African women's literature. However, this negotiation is hardly dealt with as an issue that can potentially lead to the re-evaluation of women's roles and status in contemporary Africa, so as to break away from the nostalgia for pre-colonial women's images and roles and to cast a critical eye on Western imported lifestyles. As social change occurs, women's position in Africa is undergoing an ever changing redefinition especially when it is considered within the larger scope of nationalism. This is what this dissertation proposes, a re-reading of Ama Ata Aidoo's novels, through the new prism of women's roles as part of the cultural negotiation in contemporary Ghana. In doing so, the dissertation goes beyond the paradigm of binary opposition that undergirds the critical field concerning writings by African women in favour of the innovative concept of negotiation. In addressing women's issues such as marriage, polygamy and love within the broader context of nationhood and nationalism, this study puts forward the argument that Ama Ata Aidoo has devised a space of creativity for herself through an innovative aesthetic vacuum, hitherto the preserve of men, and from which she poses, discusses and addresses through negotiation, those cultural issues affecting her and her female characters. Chapter One presents a theoretical basis for this study by providing a frame of discussion regarding the concepts of Feminism, Womanism, Gender, Socialization as well as Aidoo's commitment to these concepts, her commitment to the nation in order to explain how she is able to negotiate her commitment to both African women's issues and nationalism. Chapter Two deals with the dilemma posed in Our Sister Killjoy; Nationalism is discussed specifically in relation to women's issues, as well as to Gender and Identity. Through this association, we discuss the contentions as well as the negotiation of these two crucial issues in African literature, particularly in African women's literature. Chapter Three engages both the personal and the political in Changes, as it questions the notion of education and redefines the practice of polygamy to suit women's needs and identities in contemporary Ghana. Chapter Four explores Aidoo's style in handling the issues discussed in the above chapters, and her successful attempt in negotiating traditional storytelling and modernist techniques, as a vivid example of how to negotiate past and present. Aidoo thus makes a literary compact with her bold views concerning the role of an intellectual woman in Ghana, by engaging in a mode of writing combining post modernism with traditional orature.
The Tragic Hero in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape In the Light of Karen Horney’s Theory of Neurotic Pride
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2009) Belounis, Rachida; Deramchia, Yamina (Directeur de thèse)
This dissertation proposes to study the tragic hero in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape in the light of Karen Horney's theory of neurotic pride. It attempts to verify whether Jones - a black character - and Yank - a stoker - in The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape respectively, who were subject to rejection because of their belonging to marginalised groups, could not develop into their real selves and reach self integrity. Instead, both protagonists, to feel worthy and secure, develop neurotic pride which causes them to mould themselves into their illusory idealised selves as an immortal emperor and a divine stoker. In Horney's view, both characters will grow into alienated beings who exist both as their actual selves in the real world (conscious) and their idealised selves in their fantasy world (unconscious). The encounter between conscious and unconscious anticipates the heroes' downfall. Therefore, the choice of a psychoanalytical criticism suits the subject of our research as it addresses the mind, i.e., conscious and unconscious functioning. In fact, it sheds light on the heroes' psychic conflict which is the main cause of their tragedy. Among a number of psychoanalysts' theories we have opted for Horney's theory in particular because it presents a social view of the psyche, placing emphasis on social factors and their contribution to forming the unconscious. In other words, it shows how lack of warmth and love in Jones's and Yank's environment have made of them victims of neurotic pride whose only obsession is finding security. After trying to bring evidence from the text that Jones and Yank are victims of neurotic pride as explained by Horney, this research attempts to redefine the link between O'Neill's personal experience and his fiction. In other words, it tries to investigate whether the playwright's interest in depicting neurotic characters such as Jones and Yank stems from his personal experience of neurosis. Here appears the second reason for choosing a psychoanalytical approach. In fact, in addition to the character's psyche, psychoanalysis also addresses the author's mind. The last concern of our dissertation is exploring the stylistic aspect of both plays, Expressionism in particular. We argue that O'Neill's choice of Expressionism as the dominant style in the two plays is linked with his interest in dramatising his characters' neurotic conflict and perhaps also his own. Indeed, Expressionism seems to suit the topic of our research as it brings into light the hidden neurotic conflict.
AFRICAN WOMEN’S QUEST FOR SELF-REALIZATION BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN
(University of Algiers. Faculty of Letters and Languages, 2009) Saïl, Amina; Aït Hammou, Louisa (Directeur de thèse)
Whether or not Buchi Emecheta’s novels hold an articulate feminist ideology has been subject to hot debates among critics. Some views seem to find in Emecheta’s representation of the female experience an attack on the traditional patriarchal values of her society, and hence a call for a complete break with traditions. Others find that traditional African women enjoyed some degree of freedom and autonomy that were undermined by their contact with the West after the colonization of their countries. Therefore, according to them, the motif of her novels is to denounce the colonial oppression of traditional women. The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate of the female experience in Emecheta’s novels, The Slave Girl and The Joys of Motherhood in an attempt to understand the implications of both patriarchy and colonialism in the shaping of the Nigerian feminine self. It is a study of the representation of the Nigerian woman’s identity as female, black, colonized, and African in order to explain how race and gender were woven together as determinant factors that affected the female experience during the colonial period. Our aim is to explore Buchi Emecheta’s construction of womanhood in terms of the Self/Other concept which was developed by existentialist philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and given a feminist dimension by Simone de Beauvoir. This concept will equally inform our study of the colonizer/colonized relation in order the explain the situation of Nigerian women under British rule.