Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item SANNI KADDU : A LA REDECOUVERTE DU DISCOURS FEMINISTE AU SENEGAL(2011) Diop-Hashim, Aissatou N/A; Orlando, Valerie; French Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Senegalese feminism of today has started a very long an arduous debate. Some critics are theorizing that there is no feminist theory in Senegal. Others will go even further, stating that given the absence of a feminist theory, it would be difficult to speak of true feminism in Senegal. However, a fairly thorough search brings us to the following conclusion: Senegalese feminism is a hybrid. It is between the mainly Nigerian, African feminism and French or Western feminism of the 1970s. In the field of literature it is akin to post-colonialism. Aminata Ndiaye, a young Senegalese writer said in an interview with the women's journal Amina that in terms of feminism, Senegal is still fifty years behind France. This is quite shocking, but completely correct. In terms of progress and theories, Senegal is still under the French influence. In addition, the lack of more recent theories to which many Senegalese feminists can identify with causes them still to refer to Simone de Beauvoir. This dissertation intends to take a look at these findings; it also intends to shed a light on Senegalese traditionalist practices while going to the rediscovery of feminism in Senegal. During our research, we have found it necessary to rename Senegalese feminism that we named famillisme in so far as it invites both men and women to remedy a situation which is far from ennobling women. It is therefore an invitation to best love Senegalese women in order to enhance unity and family welfare. We have identified two groups of feminists in Senegal. The first group, mainly composed of illiterate people, is concerned with the revolutionary aspect, i.e. protest campaigns, propaganda and awareness campaigns. They were designed to "wake up" their sisters to come out of their torpor. Their movement is reminiscent of the French Revolution. The second group, which is the main focus of the second part of this study, is the heart of famillisme. It consists of the intellectual elite and their take on the theoretical aspects of feminism and the dissemination of information through writing. This group consists both of exiles like writer Ken Bugul who will be the subject of the first part of this thesis. Other writers like Aminata Sow Fall remained in Senegal. They deplore and denounce the injustices through their writings. Ken Bugul, because of her status as an exiled writer, seems less worried about censorship of the Senegalese society which requires a measure of restraint on the part of women. She uses madness as a feminist weapon to combat patriarchal traditionalism. Her speech is full of indecent assaults and devoid of the euphemisms that are found in the writings of Aminata Sow Fall which advocate a fair sharing of roles and tasks between men and women for an improved universal status of women. A quite singular aspect which appears to be unique to the famillisme is the active involvement of feminist men in the liberation of women from patriarchal domination. Sembène Ousmane, who is rather known as the father of African Cinema is the feminist par excellence. His movie Moolaadé appears to be a nod to the concept of male domination of Bourdieu but with women in power. In giving us an overview of female domination in his last film Moolaadé whose analysis will close this dissertation, Sembène takes us to night school through his cinema. He shows one of the most disturbing of cultural and Islamic traditions in Senegal: female genital mutilation. Excision is the main theme which highlights the takeover of an extraordinary woman against a domineering patriarchal traditionalist society. Our study will follow these three pioneers of the famillisme or feminist discourse and their feminist roles in Senegal where women - traditionally standing in a circle as spectators - patiently await that the group of men sitting under the palaver tree enables them to "throw their voice/sanni kaddu" once the debate has ended.++++++ Le féminisme sénégalais de nos jours a fait couler beaucoup d'encre. Certains critiques théorisent qu'il n'y a pas de théorie féministe au Sénégal. D'autres iront plus loin, déclarant qu'étant donnée l'absence d'une théorie féministe, il serait difficile de parler de vrai féminisme au Sénégal. Cependant, une recherche assez poussée nous amène à la conclusion suivante: le féminisme sénégalais est hybride. Il se trouve à cheval entre le féminisme africain, principalement nigérian, et le féminisme français ou occidental des années 1970. Sur le plan littéraire il s'apparente au postcolonialisme. Aminata Ndiaye, une jeune écrivaine sénégalaise constate dans une interview avec le journal féminin Amina qu'en matière de féminisme, le Sénégal est toujours cinquante ans derrière la France. Cette remarque est assez choquante, mais tout à fait correcte. Le wagon du Sénégal est toujours à la remorque de la locomotive française. En plus, le manque de théories plus récentes auxquelles elles peuvent s'identifier fait que beaucoup de féministes sénégalaises font toujours référence à Simone de Beauvoir. Cette thèse se donne comme but de jeter le regarder sur ces constats, d'y jeter la lumière tout en allant à la redécouverte du féminisme au Sénégal. Au cours de nos recherches, nous avons trouvé nécessaire de rebaptiser le féminisme sénégalais que nous avons nommé famillisme dans la mesure où il invite aussi bien les hommes que les femmes à remédier une situation qui est loin d'ennoblir la femme et de la mieux aimer afin de parfaire l'unité et le bien-être familial. Nous avons identifié deux groupes de féministes au Sénégal: les analphabètes qui s'occupent de l'aspect révolutionnaire, c'est-à-dire les campagnes de protestation, les propagandes et les campagnes de sensibilisations. Elles ont pour but de « réveiller » leurs soeurs afin de les sortir de leur torpeur. Elles ne manquent de nous rappeler les françaises de la Révolution. Le deuxième groupe auquel s'intéresse cette présente étude constitue le coeur du famillisme. Il est constitué de l'élite, les intellectuelles qui s'occupent de l'aspect théorique et de la dénonciation à travers l'écriture. Ce groupe est constitué à la fois d'expatriées comme l'écrivaine Ken Bugul qui sera l'objet de la première partie de cette thèse, d'écrivaines restées au Sénégal qui, comme Aminata Sow Fall, subissent les injustices qu'elles constatent, déplorent et dénoncent grâce à leur plume. Ken Bugul, du fait de sa situation d'exilée, semble moins se préoccuper de la censure de la société sénégalaise qui exige une certaine retenue de la part des femmes. Elle utilise la folie comme arme féministe de lutte contre le traditionalisme patriarcal. Son discours est dépourvu de la pudeur que l'on retrouve chez l'écrivaine du terroir Aminata Sow Fall qui suggère un partage équitable des rôles et des tâches et une amélioration du statut universel de la femme. Un aspect assez singulier qui semble être propre au famillisme est la participation active des hommes féministes à la libération des femmes du joug patriarcal. Sembène Ousmane, qui est plutôt connu comme le père du cinéma africain est le féministe par excellence. Il semble faire un clin d'oeil à La domination masculine de Bourdieu en nous donnant un aperçu de la domination féminine dans son dernier film Moolaadé dont l'analyse clôturera cette thèse. Sembène nous amène à l'école du soir qu'est le cinéma pour nous montrer une des tares de la tradition culturelle et islamique au Sénégal : les mutilations génitales. L'excision en est le thème principal qui met en exergue la prise de pouvoir d'une femme extraordinaire contre une société traditionaliste patriarcale dominatrice. Notre étude suivra ces trois pionniers du famillisme ou discours féministe et leurs oeuvres à la recherche du féminisme au Sénégal où les femmes --traditionnellement debout en cercle comme des spectatrices-- attendent patiemment que le groupe des hommes assis sous l'arbre à palabres leur permette de « jeter leur voix/sanni kaddu» une fois le débat terminé.Item The importance of being a complement: CED effects revisited(2010) Jurka, Johannes; Hornstein, Norbert R; Linguistics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation revisits subject island effects (Ross 1967, Chomsky 1973) cross-linguistically. Controlled acceptability judgment studies in German, English, Japanese and Serbian suggest that extraction out of specifiers is consistently degraded compared to extraction out of complements, indicating that the Condition on Extraction domains (CED, Huang 1982) is still empirically viable, contrary to recent claims (Stepanov 2007). As a consequence, recent treatments of the CED in terms of Multiple Spell-Out (Uriagereka 1999) are still tenable. First, a series of NP-subextraction experiments in German using was für-split is discussed. The results indicate that subject island effects cannot be reduced to freezing effects (Wexler \& Culicover 1981). Extraction out of in-situ subjects is degraded compared to extraction out of in-situ objects. Freezing incurs an additional cost, i.e., extraction out of moved domains is degraded compared to in-situ domains. Further results from German indicate that extraction out of in-situ unaccusative and passive subjects is en par with extraction out of objects, while extraction out of in-situ transitive and intransitive unergative subjects causes a decrease in acceptability. Additionally, extraction out of indirect objects is degraded compared to extraction out of direct objects. It is also observed that a second gap improves the acceptability of otherwise illicit was für-split, a phenomenon dubbed Across-the-Board (ATB)-was für-splitand analysed in terms of Sideward Movement (Hornstein \& Nunes 2002). Furthermore, wh-extraction out of non-finite sentential arguments also shows a significant subject/object asymmetry. Experiments in English indicate that NP-subextraction yields the familiar subject/object asymmetry, while the contrast largely disappears when PPs are fronted. Further results show that ECM and passive predicates do not improve the acceptability of the extraction out of subjects. Finally, subject subextraction patterns in Japanese and Serbian are investigated. Both Long-distance scrambling and clefting out of sentential subjects in Japanese leads to a stronger degradation than out of sentential objects. PP-extraction in Serbian also shows the same subject/object asymmetry, while no such contrast is found for Left Branch Extraction.Item SEA CHANGES: ABSENCE OF THE FEMININE PRESENCE AND ITS REPLACEMENT IN VERNE'S VINGT MILLE LIEUES SOUS LES MERS(2009) Chattin, Gena Rae; Mossman, Carol; French Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The following work will examine masculine representations, the absence of feminine presence, and the elements that replace it in Jules Verne's 1870 novel Vingt mille lieues sous les mers. Maternity is of particular interest in this novel. Representations of family, when they can be found, are usually seen through inanimate objects, sterile eggs, or the corpses of mothers, potentially reflecting 19th century fears of the collapsing traditional family. To understand the implication this feminine absence and replacement, relationships between the primary male characters will be considered based on the type of masculinity each represents and how their roles affect the narrative. This will lead into a discussion of reproduction and sterility, which will dovetail into an analysis of representations of femininity and maternity with an eye toward what this says about Verne's entire body of work and future potential research in this area.Item In the Margins: Representations of Otherness in Subtitled French Films(2008-05-05) Turek, Sheila; Eades, Caroline; French Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Translation involves integration of a multitude of disciplines and perspectives from which to compare two or more cultures. When translation is extended to film dialogue, in subtitling, the target language viewer unfamiliar with the source language must rely upon the subtitles to access the film's dialogue provided within the space of the verbal exchange, and often the subtitles offer an altered version of the dialogue, particularly given the time and space constraints of the medium. Subtitling, a unique form of translation, not only involves interlingual transfer but also intersemiotic transfer from a spoken dialogue to a written text. This work examines the linguistic treatment of three marginalized groups--homosexuals, women, and foreigners--as expressed in subtitles. In many instances, translation of certain elements in the films, such as forms of address and general referential language, change the meaning for the TL viewer. Cultural references present in the oral dialogue often get omitted or modified in the subtitles, altering the TL viewer's perception of the narrative and characters. These differently rendered translations have connotative qualities that are often differ significantly from the oral dialogue. In many cases, epithets and grammatically gendered language in the SL dialogue get diluted or omitted in the TL subtitles; likewise, power relationships expressed through use of forms of address, such as titles or tutoiement and vouvoiement, cannot be adequately conveyed, and the TL viewer is excluded from this nuanced form of discourse. Cultural references providing supplemental information, including non-dialogic text, are not always rendered in the subtitles, depriving the TL viewer of additional layers of meaning. In dual-language films featuring foreigners, nuances expressed by code switching and code mixing cannot be completely represented in the subtitles. Close analysis of subtitles within the framework of the sociolinguistic and cultural interpretations of the resultant TL dialogue reveals a great deal about the transmission and reception of cultural ideas and has not been addressed to this extent from this perspective. It is to be hoped that this study will inspire interest in further explorations of this nature and contribute to the ever-growing corpus of research in subtitling studies.Item The Use of ICT in Learning English as an International Language(2006-08-04) Jung, Sei-Hwa; Oxford, Rebecca L.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The simultaneous impact of globalization, the spread of English and technological development have transformed our learning and teaching English as a lingua franca in an unprecedented way (Warschauer, 2004). As a result, both English and ICT have become essential literacy skills for a growing number of non-native speakers of English to ensure full participation in the information society. The study investigated 591 Chinese university students in an inland city in relation to (a) their technology ownership, usage patterns, and levels of perceived ICT skills; (b) their motivational orientations to learn English; (c) their perceptions of English and technology; and (d) their perceived benefits of and barriers to using ICT in learning English. Findings from the questionnaire, which had both open-ended and close-ended questions, unveiled not only the students' aspirations toward acquiring English and ICT skills but also problems and challenges they have faced in the age of globalization. In addition, the current study revealed that the economic and sociocultural contexts in which the students found themselves greatly influenced their language learning experience through technology. Discussing the results of the current study, I echoed recent calls for paradigm shift in the area of (a) English as International Language (EIL), (b) EIL students' motivational orientations, and (c) the digital divide. By highlighting the vital importance of nurturing human and social resources, I suggested creating supportive communities of practice for EIL teachers in a technology-enhanced language classroom. I also provided pedagogical implications with regard to developing multiple literacies.Item A Syntactic Structure of Lexical Verbs(2005-12-12) Mori, Nobue; Uriagereka, Juan; Linguistics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this thesis, I propose a syntactic structure for verbs which directly encodes their event complexities. I present a model that is 'internalist' in the Chomskyan sense: Aktionsart properties of predicates are not a real-world affair, but the interpretation of a mind structure. For this purpose, I base my proposal on the Dimensional Theory of Uriagereka (2005, forthcoming). Syntactic constructs are in this view the results of operations that create increasingly complex objects, based on an algorithm that is homo-morphic with the structure of numerical categories. First, I propose that Aktionsart can be read off from structural complexities of syntactic objects and their associated 'theta-roles'. Specifically, I present the SAAC Hypothesis: Syntactic complexity in a verb is reflected in the number of syntactic arguments it takes. This approach, within the confines of the Dimensional Theory, results in an emergent 'thematic hierarchy': Causer > Agent > Locative > Goal > Theme. I test the accuracy of this hierarchy and concomitant assumptions through paradigms like the control of implicit arguments, selectional properties of verbs, extractions, aspect-sensitive adverbials, etc. Second, I argue that the verbal structure I propose is syntactically and semantically real, by extending the proposal in Lasnik (1999) on VP ellipsis from inflectional to derivational morphology. I discuss two contrasting methods of morphological amalgamation in English and Japanese, executed in Syntax and PF, respectively. This demonstrates a tight network of entailment patterns that holds of verbs, derived crucially from the architecture I argue for. Third, an analogous point is made through the structural positionings of causative and inchoative derivational morphemes in Japanese. There, each order of structural complexity has a profound impact on the class of eventualities a derivational morpheme can describe. 'Dimensional talks' are observed between certain derivational morphemes, which presumably find their roots in operations of the computational system within the Dimensional Theory. I show that the verbal structure in Japanese reflects directly an underlying bi-clausality that I argue for, in terms of derivational morphemes, further supporting a natural mapping between syntax and semantics. This is, in the end, an attempt for a 'Minimalist' theory of Aktionsart.Item Spaces of Passion: The Love Letters of Jean Giono to Blanche Meyer(2004-05-06) Le Page, Patricia Allard; Brami, Joseph; French Language and LiteratureABSTRACT Title of dissertation: SPACE OF PASSION: THE LOVE LETTERS OF JEAN GIONO TO BLANCHE MEYER Patricia A. Le Page, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertation directed by: Professor Joseph Brami Department of French and Italian This dissertation offers a first analysis of a collection containing more than one thousand letters that Jean Giono wrote to Blanche Meyer over a thirty year period from 1939-1969. The correspondence, which was first opened to the public in January 2000, is housed at Yale University's Beinecke Library. It has never been mentioned by Giono's biographer or critics in spite of the light it sheds on his creative process. The liaison revealed by the letters leads to a discovery of the extraordinary role that Blanche played in Giono's creative life. She was the only person to be so profoundly involved in his writing as the idealized image with whom he shared his internal dialogue. As the beloved "other" who inspired Giono's lover's discourse, she allowed him to express and examine his ideas and thus to clarify his thinking and move forward with his work. What strikes the reader upon reading the letters in conjunction with Giono's novels, is the extent to which Giono's life and his fiction were inspired by the myth of courtly love and how deeply his life and work were intertwined. Identifying and explicating the myth is significant because it provides an essential key to a renewed understanding and appreciation of Giono as a writer, a reinterpretation of the conception of love and sexuality he expresses in his novels, and a resolution of several important contradictions in his life and work. All of this leads to a reassessment of the legend invented by the writer himself and disseminated by his critics, that Giono was a self-taught provincial writer whose work was outside the intellectual mainstream. The letters reveal that Giono was a complex man of letters whose life was informed by the reading of literature and centered around writing and reflection. Moreover, the correspondence read as a meta-discourse along with his novels, provides a unique portrait of the artist engaged in the experience of passionate love which was for him the penultimate human experience and the apotheosis of the myth.