Joseph Conrad has won a prominent place in the English literary tradition though he couldhave ear... more Joseph Conrad has won a prominent place in the English literary tradition though he couldhave earned a similar name for himself in the French literary tradition if he had tried his hand in writing in French of which he had also a good command. However, his choice of writing in English has by no means diminished the impact that oeuvre, and much more particularly his Heart of Darkness has had on French writers such as André Gide, who in critical circles came to be dubbed as the "Conrad de France." In this research, we would argue that Albert Camus also fully deserves the nickname of a French Conrad adduced to Gide because of those striking resemblances in their works as imperial authors. Admittedly, unlike Gide, Camus is not Conrad's fellow contemporary. He neither exchanged friendly correspondence with Conrad across the English Channel, nor did he write that stylized version of Heart of darkness that Gide called Travels in the Congo,which explicitly invites comparison o...
The present paper looks into the redeployment of Hegel's philosophy of history in DuBois&apo... more The present paper looks into the redeployment of Hegel's philosophy of history in DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
None of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s other works whether in poetry or prose has received as much critica... more None of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s other works whether in poetry or prose has received as much critical attention as his The Great Gatsby. If it is true as it is sometimes claimed in critical circles that authors really produce only a single book that they keep re-writing in different forms, The Great Gatsby is certainly the one book in Fitzgerald’s writing career that earned him the title of novelist. To date, it has been read from diverse and multiple perspectives that makes it very difficult for new readers to carve a niche in the huge amount of scholarship that it has amassed. However, I would argue that little attention has been devoted by critics to the issue of the potlatch and the way it shapes the content and form of the novel. The “potlatch” as it is conceptualized and theorized by scholars such as Marcel Mauss in The Gift and George Bataille in The Accursed Share will be deployed in this research to account for the generic/mythic displacements that have led many critics to qua...
ANGLISTICUM. Journal of the Association for Anglo-American Studies, 2018
This research explores the feminist dimensions of Susana Rowson's play, Slaves in Algiers or,... more This research explores the feminist dimensions of Susana Rowson's play, Slaves in Algiers or, a struggle for freedom (1794), from historicist and dialogical perspectives. More particularly, it looks at the play within the context of the politics of the early American republic to uncover how Rowson deploys the captivity of American sailors in Algiers (1785-1796) as a pretext to deconstrust the established gender power relations without hurting the sensibilities of her audience in its reference to the issue of black slavery. The research also unveils the many intertextual relationships that the play holds with the prevalent captivity culture of the day, sentimental literature, and more specifically with Cervantes’s Don Quixote. Keywords: Rowson, gender power relations, early independence America.
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) stands as one of the most prominent figures in the articulation of what... more Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) stands as one of the most prominent figures in the articulation of what is known as the Pan-Africanist movement. Though born in colonial Jamaica, it was in the 1920s America that he assumed the stature as a thinker about the colonial problem. Among his extant writings, The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, or Africa for the Africans is the one book or collection of articles and speeches which best articulates his post-colonial discourse. This postcolonial thought has of late received the interest of critics like Rupert Lewis (1988), Tony Sewell (1990) and Collin Grant (2008). However, to date, as far as my knowledge goes, these critics have not tried to retrace directly or indirectly he Hegelian contours of his discourse though Hegel is known to have provided, inadvertently it must be said, the method for overturning the power relations for most postcolonial theorists. Nor have they, always according to the best of my knowledge, sought to explain ho...
This paper has studied the issue of abolition in the African writings of Joseph Conrad. Written a... more This paper has studied the issue of abolition in the African writings of Joseph Conrad. Written and published in the last decade of the nineteenth and the first decade of the twentieth centuries when the British campaign against King Leopold II’s slave system in the Congo was active, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, “An Outpost of Progress” and his letters to Roger Casement, the British diplomat who was charged to investigate on the atrocities of the Congo in 1903, are taken to be part of the British effort to eradicate the slavery system in the colonies. These writings are read through the principles of the British abolitionists who revealed to the world the atrocities exerted upon the natives of Africa in the name of the so-called humanitarian principle of the imperial project. Conrad’s abolitionism reveals itself in his claim for an international campaign against the slavery system in Africa. It also reveals itself in his depiction of the atrocities exerted upon the Africans: inhuman ...
Cet article est une etude sur le redeploiement de la philosophie de l'histoire de Hegel dans ... more Cet article est une etude sur le redeploiement de la philosophie de l'histoire de Hegel dans l'œuvre de DuBois intitule The Souls of Black Folk (1903), et ce en replique a l'ecole revisionniste de l'histoire de l'esclavage durant la periode Progressiste (1900-1917). Il explore le desaccord sur l'interpretation des idees du philosophe allemand sur l'esclavage et la destinee des differents groupes ethniques aux Etats- Unis.
Linguistic and Cultural Hybriduty in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: Proverbial Quoting or the Art of An Mbari House
“Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil wit... more “Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten (1958:5).” No doubt, those of you who have read Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart still remember this comment that Achebe’s narrator and mouthpiece throws in the process of reporting a conversation between Unoka and Okoyo in the first pages of the book.
This paper has studied the patriotism of David Humphreys as it is revealed in his Orientalist vis... more This paper has studied the patriotism of David Humphreys as it is revealed in his Orientalist vision of Algiers during the so-called Barbary captivity crisis. His patriotism works out as a narrative of America’s march towards a state of nationhood, which he does through his Orientalist appropriation of Algiers. This is related to his celebration of the ideals of the American nation in contrast to a demonization of Algiers. Therefore, his patriotic poems are considered as narratives of the United States as a nation of liberty and progress contrasted to Algiers as a slave and despotic power. Following Homi Bhabha’s idea of nationness , the paper has shown David Humphreys’s celebration of the American people’s march into the status of “freedom’s heirs” entitled with “the pursuit of happiness”. This is through the workings of the Institutions of the land for the promotion and protection of the ideals of justice, equality and freedom. As narration involves progress rather than regress, h...
Twisted Mirrors: Reflections of Monstrous Humanity
This article seeks to explore the nature and functions of monsters in Kabyle myths, which are pri... more This article seeks to explore the nature and functions of monsters in Kabyle myths, which are primarily a male cultural production, and folktales, which mostly constitute the "cultural capital" of traditional Kabyle women in Algeria. Using Leo Frobenius's (1921, 1996) three-volume collection of traditional Kabyle narratives as a corpus, and adopting a feminist perspective, the investigation has resulted in the realization that the representation of the Kabyle woman as monster is a predominant feature in the myths, and even more so in the folktales. It is argued that the excess of female monstrous representations, and the attractive and complex manner in which these representations are made in the folktales signify much more a symbolic resistance than a reproduction of the Kabyle man's mythologies about gender power relations.
This research explores the interlocked notions of friendship, community, gift, and commodity cult... more This research explores the interlocked notions of friendship, community, gift, and commodity culture in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. It seeks to demonstrate that Fitzgerald's ethical vision of friendship, community, the Bad, and the Good are deeply shaped by Aristotle's works The Nicomachean Ethics, The Politics, and The Metaphysics. The extent to which Aristotle has shaped the form and contents of The Great Gatsby, a novel rightly described as a classic of its genre and how far the contentious aspect of its gendered and orientalized characterization can be traced to Fitzgerald's dialogic relation with the Greek philosopher are among certain questions that this research addresses. The approach to the issue and the related questions stated above is eclectic. It draws its paradigms, partly from Bakhtin's dialogical theory, partly from economic and cultural anthropology, and partly from postcolonial, historical theory of the type elaborated by Said and Fanon.
Susanna Rowson’s Barbary Captivity Narrative, or the Struggle for the Freedom of American Women in Algiers
The International Social Sciences Review
This research explores the feminist dimensions of Rowson's play, Slaves in Algiers or, a stru... more This research explores the feminist dimensions of Rowson's play, Slaves in Algiers or, a struggle for freedom (1794), from historicist and dialogical perspectives. More particularly, it looks at the play within the context of the politics of the early American republic to uncover how Rowson deploys the captivity of American sailors in Algiers (1785-1796) as a pretext to deconstrust the established gender power relations without hurting the sensibilities of her audience in its reference to the issue of black slavery. The research also unveils the many intertextual relationships that the play holds with the prevalent captivity culture of the day, sentimental literature, and more specifically with Cervantes’s Don Quixote.
The present paper looks into the redeployment of Hegel's philosophy of history in DuBois's The So... more The present paper looks into the redeployment of Hegel's philosophy of history in DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk (1903) in response to the American revisionist school of slavery in the Progressive Age (1900-1917). It seeks to explore DuBois's clash with the white Progressives over the interpretation of the German philosopher's ideas about slavery and the destiny of ethnic groups in the United States.
This article seeks to explore the contradictions of the Methodist Church and the Clapham sects as... more This article seeks to explore the contradictions of the Methodist Church and the Clapham sects as ideological apparatuses. Our major argument is that the Methodist and Clapham sects were established at the end of the eighteenth century in order to contain the poor and the labouring poor in the sphere of poverty by preaching to them subordination, hard work, discipline and thrift. However, contrary to the black-andwhite picture often drawn by many scholars of the Methodist Church and Clapham sects, we also argue that they unintentionally fostered among the poor the skills of organisation and discipline, and contributed to the rise of the "condition-of-England-debate" among industrial and parliamentary reformers, a debate that ultimately resulted in the labour and parliamentary reforms in the first half of the nineteenth century. Introduction: To have a clear idea about the issues of religion and poverty in the first decades of the nineteenth-century England, we need to go as far back as the eighteenth century, a period marked by an emphasis on logic and reason that characterized the Anglican Church. The role of religion, as an organized discipline, had dwindled, as the social functions it had once performed had been secularised. It was often guilty of smugness, inactivity and identification with a small ruling class though some of its members had tried to imbue it with a new life. Among these, there was John Wesley, the founding father of the Methodist movement, who tried to take religion to those whom the Church had neglected in the nascent industrial towns and
Joseph Conrad has won a prominent place in the English literary tradition though he couldhave ear... more Joseph Conrad has won a prominent place in the English literary tradition though he couldhave earned a similar name for himself in the French literary tradition if he had tried his hand in writing in French of which he had also a good command. However, his choice of writing in English has by no means diminished the impact that oeuvre, and much more particularly his Heart of Darkness has had on French writers such as André Gide, who in critical circles came to be dubbed as the "Conrad de France." In this research, we would argue that Albert Camus also fully deserves the nickname of a French Conrad adduced to Gide because of those striking resemblances in their works as imperial authors. Admittedly, unlike Gide, Camus is not Conrad's fellow contemporary. He neither exchanged friendly correspondence with Conrad across the English Channel, nor did he write that stylized version of Heart of darkness that Gide called Travels in the Congo,which explicitly invites comparison o...
The present paper looks into the redeployment of Hegel's philosophy of history in DuBois&apo... more The present paper looks into the redeployment of Hegel's philosophy of history in DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
None of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s other works whether in poetry or prose has received as much critica... more None of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s other works whether in poetry or prose has received as much critical attention as his The Great Gatsby. If it is true as it is sometimes claimed in critical circles that authors really produce only a single book that they keep re-writing in different forms, The Great Gatsby is certainly the one book in Fitzgerald’s writing career that earned him the title of novelist. To date, it has been read from diverse and multiple perspectives that makes it very difficult for new readers to carve a niche in the huge amount of scholarship that it has amassed. However, I would argue that little attention has been devoted by critics to the issue of the potlatch and the way it shapes the content and form of the novel. The “potlatch” as it is conceptualized and theorized by scholars such as Marcel Mauss in The Gift and George Bataille in The Accursed Share will be deployed in this research to account for the generic/mythic displacements that have led many critics to qua...
ANGLISTICUM. Journal of the Association for Anglo-American Studies, 2018
This research explores the feminist dimensions of Susana Rowson's play, Slaves in Algiers or,... more This research explores the feminist dimensions of Susana Rowson's play, Slaves in Algiers or, a struggle for freedom (1794), from historicist and dialogical perspectives. More particularly, it looks at the play within the context of the politics of the early American republic to uncover how Rowson deploys the captivity of American sailors in Algiers (1785-1796) as a pretext to deconstrust the established gender power relations without hurting the sensibilities of her audience in its reference to the issue of black slavery. The research also unveils the many intertextual relationships that the play holds with the prevalent captivity culture of the day, sentimental literature, and more specifically with Cervantes’s Don Quixote. Keywords: Rowson, gender power relations, early independence America.
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) stands as one of the most prominent figures in the articulation of what... more Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) stands as one of the most prominent figures in the articulation of what is known as the Pan-Africanist movement. Though born in colonial Jamaica, it was in the 1920s America that he assumed the stature as a thinker about the colonial problem. Among his extant writings, The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, or Africa for the Africans is the one book or collection of articles and speeches which best articulates his post-colonial discourse. This postcolonial thought has of late received the interest of critics like Rupert Lewis (1988), Tony Sewell (1990) and Collin Grant (2008). However, to date, as far as my knowledge goes, these critics have not tried to retrace directly or indirectly he Hegelian contours of his discourse though Hegel is known to have provided, inadvertently it must be said, the method for overturning the power relations for most postcolonial theorists. Nor have they, always according to the best of my knowledge, sought to explain ho...
This paper has studied the issue of abolition in the African writings of Joseph Conrad. Written a... more This paper has studied the issue of abolition in the African writings of Joseph Conrad. Written and published in the last decade of the nineteenth and the first decade of the twentieth centuries when the British campaign against King Leopold II’s slave system in the Congo was active, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, “An Outpost of Progress” and his letters to Roger Casement, the British diplomat who was charged to investigate on the atrocities of the Congo in 1903, are taken to be part of the British effort to eradicate the slavery system in the colonies. These writings are read through the principles of the British abolitionists who revealed to the world the atrocities exerted upon the natives of Africa in the name of the so-called humanitarian principle of the imperial project. Conrad’s abolitionism reveals itself in his claim for an international campaign against the slavery system in Africa. It also reveals itself in his depiction of the atrocities exerted upon the Africans: inhuman ...
Cet article est une etude sur le redeploiement de la philosophie de l'histoire de Hegel dans ... more Cet article est une etude sur le redeploiement de la philosophie de l'histoire de Hegel dans l'œuvre de DuBois intitule The Souls of Black Folk (1903), et ce en replique a l'ecole revisionniste de l'histoire de l'esclavage durant la periode Progressiste (1900-1917). Il explore le desaccord sur l'interpretation des idees du philosophe allemand sur l'esclavage et la destinee des differents groupes ethniques aux Etats- Unis.
Linguistic and Cultural Hybriduty in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: Proverbial Quoting or the Art of An Mbari House
“Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil wit... more “Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten (1958:5).” No doubt, those of you who have read Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart still remember this comment that Achebe’s narrator and mouthpiece throws in the process of reporting a conversation between Unoka and Okoyo in the first pages of the book.
This paper has studied the patriotism of David Humphreys as it is revealed in his Orientalist vis... more This paper has studied the patriotism of David Humphreys as it is revealed in his Orientalist vision of Algiers during the so-called Barbary captivity crisis. His patriotism works out as a narrative of America’s march towards a state of nationhood, which he does through his Orientalist appropriation of Algiers. This is related to his celebration of the ideals of the American nation in contrast to a demonization of Algiers. Therefore, his patriotic poems are considered as narratives of the United States as a nation of liberty and progress contrasted to Algiers as a slave and despotic power. Following Homi Bhabha’s idea of nationness , the paper has shown David Humphreys’s celebration of the American people’s march into the status of “freedom’s heirs” entitled with “the pursuit of happiness”. This is through the workings of the Institutions of the land for the promotion and protection of the ideals of justice, equality and freedom. As narration involves progress rather than regress, h...
Twisted Mirrors: Reflections of Monstrous Humanity
This article seeks to explore the nature and functions of monsters in Kabyle myths, which are pri... more This article seeks to explore the nature and functions of monsters in Kabyle myths, which are primarily a male cultural production, and folktales, which mostly constitute the "cultural capital" of traditional Kabyle women in Algeria. Using Leo Frobenius's (1921, 1996) three-volume collection of traditional Kabyle narratives as a corpus, and adopting a feminist perspective, the investigation has resulted in the realization that the representation of the Kabyle woman as monster is a predominant feature in the myths, and even more so in the folktales. It is argued that the excess of female monstrous representations, and the attractive and complex manner in which these representations are made in the folktales signify much more a symbolic resistance than a reproduction of the Kabyle man's mythologies about gender power relations.
This research explores the interlocked notions of friendship, community, gift, and commodity cult... more This research explores the interlocked notions of friendship, community, gift, and commodity culture in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. It seeks to demonstrate that Fitzgerald's ethical vision of friendship, community, the Bad, and the Good are deeply shaped by Aristotle's works The Nicomachean Ethics, The Politics, and The Metaphysics. The extent to which Aristotle has shaped the form and contents of The Great Gatsby, a novel rightly described as a classic of its genre and how far the contentious aspect of its gendered and orientalized characterization can be traced to Fitzgerald's dialogic relation with the Greek philosopher are among certain questions that this research addresses. The approach to the issue and the related questions stated above is eclectic. It draws its paradigms, partly from Bakhtin's dialogical theory, partly from economic and cultural anthropology, and partly from postcolonial, historical theory of the type elaborated by Said and Fanon.
Susanna Rowson’s Barbary Captivity Narrative, or the Struggle for the Freedom of American Women in Algiers
The International Social Sciences Review
This research explores the feminist dimensions of Rowson's play, Slaves in Algiers or, a stru... more This research explores the feminist dimensions of Rowson's play, Slaves in Algiers or, a struggle for freedom (1794), from historicist and dialogical perspectives. More particularly, it looks at the play within the context of the politics of the early American republic to uncover how Rowson deploys the captivity of American sailors in Algiers (1785-1796) as a pretext to deconstrust the established gender power relations without hurting the sensibilities of her audience in its reference to the issue of black slavery. The research also unveils the many intertextual relationships that the play holds with the prevalent captivity culture of the day, sentimental literature, and more specifically with Cervantes’s Don Quixote.
The present paper looks into the redeployment of Hegel's philosophy of history in DuBois's The So... more The present paper looks into the redeployment of Hegel's philosophy of history in DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk (1903) in response to the American revisionist school of slavery in the Progressive Age (1900-1917). It seeks to explore DuBois's clash with the white Progressives over the interpretation of the German philosopher's ideas about slavery and the destiny of ethnic groups in the United States.
This article seeks to explore the contradictions of the Methodist Church and the Clapham sects as... more This article seeks to explore the contradictions of the Methodist Church and the Clapham sects as ideological apparatuses. Our major argument is that the Methodist and Clapham sects were established at the end of the eighteenth century in order to contain the poor and the labouring poor in the sphere of poverty by preaching to them subordination, hard work, discipline and thrift. However, contrary to the black-andwhite picture often drawn by many scholars of the Methodist Church and Clapham sects, we also argue that they unintentionally fostered among the poor the skills of organisation and discipline, and contributed to the rise of the "condition-of-England-debate" among industrial and parliamentary reformers, a debate that ultimately resulted in the labour and parliamentary reforms in the first half of the nineteenth century. Introduction: To have a clear idea about the issues of religion and poverty in the first decades of the nineteenth-century England, we need to go as far back as the eighteenth century, a period marked by an emphasis on logic and reason that characterized the Anglican Church. The role of religion, as an organized discipline, had dwindled, as the social functions it had once performed had been secularised. It was often guilty of smugness, inactivity and identification with a small ruling class though some of its members had tried to imbue it with a new life. Among these, there was John Wesley, the founding father of the Methodist movement, who tried to take religion to those whom the Church had neglected in the nascent industrial towns and
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