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Brain State Dependent Role of Attention in Perceptual Processing and Decision Making

متن کامل پایان نامه مقطع کارشناسی ارشد رشته :زبان انگلیسی

عنوان :پایان نامه رشته زبان انگلیسی : Brain State Dependent Role of Attention in Perceptual Processing and Decision Making

Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences

Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (IPM)

School of Cognitive Sciences (SCS)

Ph.D. Thesis Cognitive Science, Brain and Cognition

Brain State Dependent Role of Attention in Perceptual Processing and Decision Making

Supervisor: Professor Hossein Esteky

March, 2011

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Abstract

Attention to a specific target or location in visual space enhances the baseline activity of the cells representing the target or the spatial location. Attention can also be directed based on the expectations. Attention mediated enhanced baseline activity is correlated with improved object recognition. To explore the relation of visual attention with neural baseline activity, cortical sensory processing and the behavioral choice we recorded the activity of single cells in the inferior temporal cortex of monkeys during two different tasks. The tasks were a passive fixation and a two-alternative forced choice categorization of noisy body and object images. We found enhanced neural activity in categorization task compared to the passive fixation task. Both body and object selective cells showed significantly more response enhancement for their preferred category compared to the non-preferred category. No such response enhancement was observed in trials when the monkeys made a wrong choice in the categorization task. Magnitude of the response enhancement was larger for more noisy stimuli. More importantly, in trials with high baseline activity responses of body selective and object selective cells to body images were enhanced and suppressed, respectively. We also found decreased neural response variability in the categorization compared to the passive task. Larger effects were observed at higher noise levels. By measuring choice probability we found that neural firing rate was correlated with monkeys’ choice, particularly in trials with high baseline activity. We suggest that attentional enhancement of IT cells’ baseline firing rate is correlated with improved neural response reliability and category selectivity. These effects are dependent on the cells’ category selectivity, attentional load and the exact time of baseline activity increase.

Keywords: object recognition, neural baseline activity, visual attention, decision making

Table of Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………..….10

The crucial role of “visual object categorization: in everyday life…………10

Where in the brain is category information represented? ……………………11

Anatomy of inferior temporal cortex…………………………….…………23

Attention improves categorization performance, especially in difficult condition…………………………………………………………………….25

Bottom-up vs. top-down attention………………………………….………26

What is attention directed to?………………………………………….……28
1. Object-based attention…………………………………..…..….……29

Sources and targets of attention in the brain…………………………….…31

Attention modulates different response properties…………………..……..31
1. Firing rate modulation………………….……………………………32
  1. Response suppression…………………………………………33

Baseline enhancement………………………………..………34

Reliability increase……………………………………….………….36

Response sensitivity increase……………………………….……….37

Response selectivity modulation…………………………….………38

Synchronization, oscillation and correlated responses across cell population…………………………………………………………….39

Objectives……………………………………………………………………..….42

Method……………………………………………………………………………43

Subjects………………………………………………………….…………43

Stereotactic MRI……………………………………………….…………..43

Head-post implantation surgery.……………………….…………………..44

Stimuli…………………………………………………….………………..46

Tasks…………………………………………………………………………47
1. Active task (two-alternative forced-choice body/object categorization)……………………………………………………….47

Training…………………………………………………….………………50

Eye monitoring………………………………………………….………….52

Craniotomy surgery …………………………………………….………….52

Recording………………………………………………………….……….53
1. Signal amplification and frequency filtering ……………………….57

Data analysis……………………………………………………..…………59
1. Peristimulus time histograms (PSTH), normalizing and smoothing ……………………………………………………………………….67

Results…………………………………………………………………………….68

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..88

Figures……………………………………………………………………………90

Stimulus set …………………………………….……………..….90

Figure 2. Different noise levels of an exemplar stimulus ……………….…91

Figure 3. Passive task……………………………………………………….92

Figure 4. Active task (two-alternative forced-choice body/object categorization…………………………………………………………….…93

Figure 5. Monkeys’ performance in body/object categorization task. …….95

Figure 6. The pattern of performance decline as a function of noise level was reverse for bodies and objects …………………………………………….. 96

Figure 7. Monkeys’ performance in body/object categorization task for subcategories …………………………………………………………..…..97

Figure 8 .Performance decline between adjacent signal levels in subcategories of bodies and objects ……………………………….………98

Figure 9. Behavioral d́ (d́ = Z “hit rate” – Z “false alarm”) in different visual signals ……………………………………………………………….…….. 99

Figure 10. Cumulative d́ in signal level of 90 ……………………….……100

Figure 11. Reaction time in different signal conditions in correct and wrong trials……………………………………………………………………….101

Figure 12. Reaction time in subcategory level……………………………102

Figure 13. Relation between reaction time and performance in different signal levels…………………………………………………………….…103

Figure 14. Mean number of microsaccades in different noise levels……..104

Figure 15. Mean number of microsaccades in correct and wrong trials of different signal levels……………………………………………………..105

Figure 16. Reaction time in trials with and without microsaccades in different signal levels…………………………………………………..…106

Figure 17. Normalized mean firing rate of body cells across different visual signals and behavioral conditions…………………………………….…..107

Figure 18. Normalized mean firing rate of non-body cells across different visual signals and behavioral conditions…………………………………..109

Figure 19.Response modulation index (RMI) as a function of task difficulty……………………………………………………………….….111

Figure 20. Mean response modulation onset across body image signal levels in body cells’ correct trials…………………………………………….….112

Figure 21. Attentional enhancement of IT cells’ body-object discriminability (d’) was observed only in correct trials and degree of enhancement depended on task difficulty………………………………………………………..…114

Figure 22. Mean d’ modulation in correct (blue) and wrong (black) compared to passive condition in body cells…………………………………………116

Figure 23. Mean d’ modulation in correct (blue) and wrong (black) compared to passive condition in non-body cells……………………………………117

Figure 24. Temporal pattern of baseline firing rate modulation in active compared to passive condition…………………………………………….118

Figure 25. Temporal pattern of p-values of t-tests measuring significant increase of baseline rate in active compared to passive condition……..…119

Figure 26. Frequency distribution of proportion of HBTs in body (top) and non-body (bottom) cells during active task…………………………….…120

Figure 27. Baseline dependent enhancement of body and suppression of non-body cells’ responses to presentation of body images in correct condition……………………………………………………………….….121

Figure 28. Baseline dependent enhancement of body and suppression of non-body cells’ responses to presentation of body images in wrong condition………………………………………………………………..…122

Figure 29. Temporal dynamic of body and non-body cells’ RMI to presentation of body images in correct and wrong conditions for HBTs………………………………………………………………………123

Figure 30. Temporal dynamic of body and non-body cells’ RMI to presentation of body images in correct and wrong conditions for LBTs…124

Figure 31. P-values of t-tests measuring significant enhancement of body and suppression of non-body cells’ responses in HBTs as time window to define high baseline activity varied over time…………………………….125

Figure 32. P-values of t-tests measuring significantly larger RMI values of body and smaller RMI values of non-body cells’ in HBTs vs. LBTs as time window to define high vs. low baseline activity varied over time…….….126

Figure 33. Body cells’ RMI values of high and low baseline trials across body stimulus signal levels…………………………………………….…127

Figure 34. Baseline dependent modulation of body and non-body cells’ responses to presentation of object images…………………………….…129

Figure 35. Baseline dependent modulation of body and non-body cells’ responses to presentation of object images…………………………….…130

Figure 36. Temporal dynamics of body and non-body cells’ RMI to presentation of object images in correct and wrong conditions for HBTs………………………………………………………………………131

Figure 37. Temporal dynamics of body and non-body cells’ RMI to presentation of object images in correct and wrong conditions for LBTs………………………………………………………………………132

Figure 38. Frequency distribution of adjusted RMI values for body and non-body cells in HBTs and LBTs………………………………………….…133

Figure 39. Rate-matched fano factor modulation index (FFMI) of body and non-body cells to presentation of body images in correct condition for HBTs vs. LBTs………………………………………………………………..…134

Figure 40. Rate-matched fano factor modulation (FFMI) of body and non-body cells to presentation of object images in correct conditions for HBTs and LBTs. …………………………………………………………………135

Figure 41a. Frequency distribution of normalized d’ modulation difference in LBTs vs. HBTs for body and non-body cells…………………………..136

Figure 41b. The impact of task specific attentional modulation on firing rate depends on cells’ category selectivity……………………………………..137

Figure 42. The impact of task specific attentional modulation on firing rate depends on cells’ category selectivity………………………………….…138

Figure 43. Comparison of RMI values of correct vs. wrong trials of LBTs and HBTs……………………………………………………………….…139

Figure 44. Comparison of rate modulation in body and non-body cells population across trials of body images with different baseline spike counts……………………………………………………………………..140

Figure 45. Comparison of rate modulation in body and non-body cells population across trials of object images with different baseline spike counts………………………………………………………………….….142

Figure 46. Baseline dependent correlation of neural activity and behavioral choice…………………………………………………………………..…143

Figure 47. Correlation between CP and cells’ body/object discrimination power………………………………………………………………………144

Figure 48. CP values of body cells plotted against the HBTs proportion in active task………………………………………………………………….145

Figure 49. RMI values of body cells plotted against the HBTs proportion in active task…………………………………………………………………146

Figure 50. Attentional modulation of baseline and evoked response in 30 low baseline cells…………………………………………………………147

Figure 51. Attentional modulation of baseline and evoked response in 30 low baseline cells…………………………………………………………148

Figure 52. Percent of HBT in active is plotted vs. percent of HBT in passive for 14 body and 16 non-body cells………………………………………..149

Figure 53. RMI of low baseline body and non-body cells in different stimulus and choice conditions……………………………………………150

Figure 54. RMI of low baseline body and non-body cells in different stimulus and choice conditions……………………………………………151

Figure 55. Percent of HBT is active vs. percent of HBT in passive………152

Figure 56. A combination of baseline firing rate and evoked response modulation in active compared with passive conditions affects monkeys’ performance…………………………………………………………….…153

Figure 57. Polar plots of IT cells activity show that baseline dependent differential response of IT cell subpopulations determines monkey’s choice…………………………………………………………………..…155

Appendix1: Stimulus set……………………………………………….……….158

Appendix2: List of abbreviations………………………………………………164

References………………………………………………………………………..166

Introduction

The crucial role of “visual object categorization” in everyday life

Our normal life relies on ability of visual object recognition or determining the identity of a seen object. We recognize different familiar or novel objects in everyday life. We do this with no or little effort, despite the fact that these objects may vary in form, color, illumination, view, size or texture from time to time. Based on both behavioral and neural data there are different levels of object recognition. When we see Einstein’s face, first we detect it as a “face” (supraordinate level), perceive as a “human face” (ordinate level) and then “Einstein’s face” (subordinate level). Spector and Kanwisher explored the sequence of processing steps in object recognition by asking human subjects to do three different tasks: object detection, categorization and identification. Accuracy and reaction time were similar for object detection and categorization showing that “as soon as you know it is there, you know what it is” (Spector and Kanwisher, 2005). On the other hand, lower accuracy and longer reaction time was observed for identification compared to categorization, introducing them as different steps of object recognition. Compatible with behavioral data firing patterns of single cells in inferior temporal cortex, a cortical area involved in object recognition, convey the information about categorization and identification with different latencies. Earliest part of the response (~120 ms after stimulus presentation) represents information about categorization while more detailed information about members of category started ~50 ms later (Sugase et al., 1999). Therefore, visual cortex processes information from global to fine in a hierarchical fashion. It has been suggested that categorization relies on the “presence or absence of features”, whereas identification is based on “configurational judgments”.

“Visual object categorization” or our ability to classify objects by giving meaning to our environment enables us to interact normally and efficiently with objects and events. There are some defined classes of objects in our mind. They usually share some major common properties in their appearance, while at the same time there are lots of differences among their members. For example, trees usually grow from the earth, they have roots, stem and usually green leaves. While they have similar properties, each of the species has a set of specific characteristics. But we call all of them trees, and also easily classify any new member as tree, even if we have not seen something like it before. This fascinating ability of categorization objects is vital for our survival. We know special traits for different object categories. We have learned how to treat and interact with any of them, depending on their characteristics. For example, classifying a rod-shaped moving object as “snake” makes us to run away as fast as possible. We perform this task easily and rapidly under very different conditions and even in noisy environment. Behavioral studies in human have shown that they can recognize animals in a cluttered picture which is presented only for 20ms with reaction times less than 400ms and 95% accuracy (Thorpe et al., 1996; Keysers et al., 2001). Monkeys showed even faster reaction times (Fabre-Thorpe et al., 1998). Monkeys could categorize food and trees with reaction times less than 250ms (Vogels, 1999a). Single cell studies in macaque inferior temporal (IT) cortex have revealed that category response latency is less than 100ms from stimulus onset (Vogels, 1999b; Kiani et al., 2005; Perrett et al., 1982).

Where in the brain is category information represented?

Neural mechanisms of and cortical areas involved in visual object categorization are among the hottest areas in field of cognitive neuroscience. Exploring the underlying mechanisms of visual categorization in the activity of single neurons of a special cortical area is based on what Santiago Ramon Cajal proposed by “Neuron Doctrine” over a century ago. He showed that nervous system is not one continuous web but a network of discrete cells. According to “Neuron Doctrine” individual neurons are the basic structural and functional units of the nervous system. This finding led to a new view of brain function called “Cellular Connectionism”. Based on this view, individual neurons are the signaling units of the brain; they are generally arranged in functional groups and connect to one another in a precise fashion and different behaviors are produced by different brain regions interconnected by specific neural pathways (Kandel, 2000).

Visual cortices are regions of the brain dedicated to the process of visual information. There is a “feed-forward flow

of visual information” in these cortical areas. Visual information after reaching the eyes extends from the retina to the primary visual cortex (V1) and then the secondary visual cortex (V2). After V2, visual information goes through two different visual pathways:

Dorsa visual pathway or “what” pathway, involved in motion detection and visumotor tasks

Ventral visual pathway or “where” pathway, involved in object recognition

Understanding and recognition of shape of visual objects are completed in ventral visual pathway of the brain. Across the ventral visual pathway, there is a flow of visual information from the lower level visual areas (V1 & V2) into mid level (V4) and then to the high level visual area (IT) (Merigan & Maunsell, 1993). There is also a hierarchical organization even along the subareas of IT cortex. These intrinsic connections in the IT cortex were studied by Fujita & Fujita (1996). They showed that these connections were distributed in an anisotropic manner (fibers go through anteroposterior direction more than mediolateral direction) around the injection of the tracer showing the continuous feed-forward flow of visual information even in these subareas. Along with this feed-forward flow of visual information there is a hierarchical processing of the visual information. Reflected light from visual stimuli after entering the eyes is converted into electrical signals by photoreceptors and ganglion cells in the retina which respond optimally to contrast and small spots of light in their small receptive fields resulting in decomposition of visual stimuli into a pattern of small spots. Progressive convergence of input from retina and LGN (lateral geniculate nucleus) to the primary visual cortex (V1) leads to some feature abstraction. The outline of a visual image is decomposed into spots in retina and then recomposed into short line segments of various orientations by simple and complex cells in V1 cortex (Hubel & Wiesel, 1962). The visual pathway extends from V1 to V2. V2 neurons continue the analysis of contours begun by V1 neurons. Response of many V2 neurons to illusory lines just as real edges shows that the feature abstraction is in progress through the visual stream (Kandel, 2000). To clarify the progressive abstraction of visual information processing from V2 to downstream cortices, Kobatake & Tanaka (1994) defined an index based on the ratio of the maximum neural response to simple stimuli to the maximum neural response to all other stimuli in their image set (both simple and complex stimuli). The distribution of this ratio shifted from 1 toward 0 step by step from V2 to anterior IT. They showed that in macaque monkeys, the best stimulus of cells in V2 were just simple shapes, in V4 and posterior IT were both simple and complex features and the cells selective to complex features were intermingled in single penetrations with cells that responded maximally to some simple features. They also found that neurons of anterior IT were just selective to complex features. They suggested that local neuronal networks in V4 and posterior IT play an essential role in the abstraction of simple features into complex object features. These findings are consistent with “Feature Detection Theory”, one of the main theories in object recognition. According to this theory, the object perception proceeds by recognizing individual features, such as back, seat, arms and base of a chair, and assembling them into a coherent pattern, or chair.

Critical Pedagogy and Language Teaching at Iranian SchoolsWhere Are We?

متن کامل پایان نامه مقطع کارشناسی ارشد رشته :زبان انگلیسی

عنوان : پایان نامه زبان انگلیسی :Critical Pedagogy and Language Teaching at Iranian Schools: Where Are We?

University of Yasouj

Faculty of Literature and Humanities

Department of English Language and Literature

M.A. Thesis

Critical Pedagogy and Language Teaching at Iranian Schools: Where Are We?

Supervisers:

Dr. Goudarz Alibakhshi

Dr. Rouhallah Zarei

September 2011

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ABSTRACT:

Critical pedagogy (CP) in English language teaching(ELT) is an attitude to language teaching which relates the classroom context to the wider social context and aims at social transformation through education (Akbari, 2008). It seems that the main principles and assumptions underlying CP can, to a great extent, influence the process, outcomes, possible dangers, and effectiveness of learning and teaching English in non-English-speaking countries. Despite the great emphasis laid on the importance of being critical, it is not really known whether or not Iranian English language teachers are aware of critical pedagogy in ELT. In other words, this study attempted to find out to what extent Iranian LTs are critical and what are the main obstacles which prevent them from being critical. For the purposes of this study, 100 language teachers holding BA in English were selected through stratified random sampling from Lorestan and Kuhgiluieh & Boyerahmad provinces. At first, a questionnaire consisting of 30 items in 7 dimensions was developed and administered to the participants to find out whether they are aware of principles and premises of critical pedagogy or not. Then, a face to face in-depth interview was conducted with a representative sample of participants (those who were familiar with critical pedagogy) to find the main barriers of applying critical pedagogy in schools. The data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics and grounded theory. The results of the study showed that most of the Iranian language teachers are aware of principles and premises of critical pedagogy. Results also indicted that organizational, personal, and learner’s barriers were the main obstacles of applying critical pedagogy in schools.

Key words: critical pedagogy, ELT, language teachers, Iranian language teachers

This thesis is dedicated to

My parents

Who are my very first teachers

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who supported me and helped me while I was writing this thesis. My first and foremost thanks go to my supervisors, Dr. Goudarz Alibakhshi and Dr. Rouhallah Zaarei for their immeasurable guidance and assistance in writing my thesis.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all English language teachers from both Lorestan and Kuhgiluieh & Boyerahmad provinces who participated in this study for the time and information they provided. A special thanks to my friends and classmates for their ongoing support, encouragement, and advice.

Finally, I am particularly grateful to my family who always encouraged me to the best I could and always remind me that success is found through the acquisition of knowledge. To all of you who assisted in helping me to complete this process: the result is as much yours as it is mine.

Thank You.

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………..…ir

DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………………….iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………….…v

LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………….….viii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………..…1

1.1 General Background………………………………………………..….1

1.2 Statement of Problem……………………………………………….…5

1.3 Objectives of the Study ………………………………………….……..6

1.4 Significance of the Study …………………………………………..….6

1.5 Definitions of Key Terms……………………………………………….6

1.6 Outline of the Study………………………………………………..…..8

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………….…10

2.1 Introduction………………………………………………………….…10

2.2 History of Critical Pedagogy……………………………………….…..10

2.3 Theoretical Bases of Critical Pedagogy………………………….….….10

2.4 Critical Applied Linguistics…………………………………………….19

2.4.1 Domains of Critical Applied Linguistics……………………………20

2.4.1.1 Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Literacy……………..…20

2.4.1.2 Critical Approaches to Translation…………………………….…22

2.4.1.3 Critical Approaches to Language Education…………………..…22

2.4.1.4 Critical Language Testing……………………………………..…25

2.4.1.5 Critical Approaches to Language Planning and Language Rights.26

2.4.1.6 Critical Approaches to Language, Literacy, and Workplace Setting27

2.5 Critical Frameworks……………………………………………………………28

2.6 Critical Language Pedagogy………………………………………………………….. 30

2.6.1 Linguistic Imperialism………………………………………………………30

2.6.2 Methods as a Colonial Construct…………………………………………….31

2.6.3 Postmethod as a Postcolonial Construct…………………………………..…33

2.7 Empirical Research……………………………………………………………….……35

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………….…39

3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………..………39

3.2 Design of the Study………………………………………………..……………39

3.3 Participants………………………………………………………………………40

3.4 Instrumentation…………………………………………..………………………40

3.5 Data Analysis………………………………………………………….…………41

3.6 Procedure of the Study……………………………………………………………42

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION……………………………………………………….. 43

4.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….43

4.2 Quantitative Results………………………………………..………………………..43

4.3 Results for Question 1…………………………………………………………………………………51

4.4 Qualitative Results……………………………………………………………….64

4.5 Discussions……………………………………………………………………….72

CHAPTER V: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, & IMPLICATION…………………….80

5.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………..80

5.2 Summary of the Study…………………………………………………………………………………80

5.3 Implications of the Study……………………………………………………………………………..82

5.4 Limitations of the Study ………………………………………………………….84

5.5 Suggestions for Further Research………………………………………………………………….84

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..86

APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………………………………………………95

Appendix I: The Last Version of Inventory…………………………………………………………..95

Appendix II: Results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis…………………….……………..….98

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1: 41 item-inventory of critical pedagogy……………………………….41

Table 4.2: Component matrix for dimension 1…………………………………..46

Table 4.3: Component matrix for dimension 2…………………………………..47

Table 4.4: Component matrix for dimension 3…………………………………..47

Table 4.5: Component matrix for dimension 4…………………………………..48

Table 4.6: Component matrix for dimension 5…………………………………..49

Table 4.7: Component matrix for dimension 6……………………………….….50

Table 4.8: Component matrix for dimension 7………………………………..…50

Table 4.9: Descriptive statistics for participants’ responses to dimension 1…….52

Table 4.10: Inferential statistics for dimension 1……………………………..…54

Table 4.11: Descriptive statistics for participants’ responses to dimension 2…..55

Table 4.12: Inferential statistics for dimension 2……………………………….56

Table 4.13: Descriptive statistics for participants’ responses to dimension 3…..57

Table 4.14: Inferential statistics for dimension 3…………………………….…57

Table 4.15: Descriptive statistics for participants’ responses to dimension 4.…58

Table 4.16: Inferential statistics for dimension 4………………………….……59

Table 4.17: Descriptive statistics for participants’ responses to dimension 5…60

Table 4.18: Inferential statistics for dimension 6………………………………61

Table 4.19: Descriptive statistics for participants’ responses to dimension 6…61

Table 4.20: Inferential statistics for dimension 6………………………………62

Table 4.21: Descriptive statistics for participants’ responses to dimension 7…63

Table 4.22: Inferential statistics for dimension 7………………………………64

CHAPTER I

Introduction

1.1. General background

Critical pedagogy is an educational theory that aims to make students conscious of the many institutions that exist to facilitate and perpetuate systematic forms of oppression, both within and outside the classroom (Hollestin, 2006). Canagarajah (2005) argues that Critical pedagogy is not a set of ideas, but a way of ‘doing’ learning and teaching. It is a practice motivated by a distinct attitude toward classrooms and society. Critical students and teachers are prepared to situate learning in the relevant social contexts, unravel the implications of power in pedagogical activity, and commit themselves to transforming the means and ends of learning in order to construct more egalitarian, equitable, and ethical educational and social environments .Students exist in a very complex and constantly changing world; it is the responsibility of teachers to prepare students to live in this world. By implementing critical pedagogy, teachers can help students develop the essential skills they need to deal with a complex and ever changing world (Bassy, 1999).

Teachers can enable students to make critical analyses of the ideologies underpinning all forms of discourse without necessarily promoting a specific value system (Hardin, 2001). The acquired skills by critical pedagogy will prepare students to question the status quo critically, examine the hidden power structures that exist in society, and enable them to facilitate change in order to create a democratic, equitable, and fair world (Giroux, 2001). Critical pedagogy for the first time appeared in realm of education by Paulo Freire (1970). He introduced such concepts as banking theory, dialogical method, and transformative education. In the banking model of education, he argued, knowledge was another commodity to be transferred as efficiently as possible from sender to receiver. As an alternative to this system of education, Freire (1970) proposed that education should be a dialogical process in which students and teachers share their experiences in a non-hierarchical manner.

Pedagogical theories of philosopher John Dewey (1933) have a great impact on critical pedagogy movement. In his book democracy and education, he asserted that education must be a transformative experience. Dewey believed that ideal classroom should be a place where students use trial and error to develop needed skills for engaging in a genuine or an ethical democratic citizenship. Pennycook (1990) as one of the great exponent of critical pedagogy believed that there are two elements at the heart of all critical pedagogy theories: a notion of critique that includes a sense of possibility for transformation and an exploration of the nature of and relationship between culture, knowledge, and power. Viewing schools as cultural areas where diverse ideological and social forms are in constant struggle, critical pedagogy examines schools both in their contemporary sociopolitical content and their historical context (Pennycook, 1990).

Giroux (1989) argued for pedagogy of and for difference, a pedagogy that not only respect student’s voice and difference, but also relates these differences to the wider social order, creating the democratic sense of respect for difference that is essential for any notion of equality in society. Critical pedagogy (CP) is like a tree with some very central branches, the basic principles. ‘Empowerment’ is one of those very main branches of great moment in CP. It is mainly concerned with developing in students and teachers the self-esteem to question the power relations in the society (McLaren, 2003), thus gain the voice they deserve in the same society. CP looks at education as a political enterprise (Kincheloe, 2008) and aims to raise students’ “consciousness”, a term borrowed from Freire, to make them more aware of the power games in the society and their own position in that game. It is the “pedagogy of inclusion” (Pennycook, 2001) and has in large part been created to give the marginalized students the “right to speak” (Peirce, 1989, 1995, 1997).

Calderson (2003) discusses the notion of critical pedagogy as the guiding educational philosophy in community-based education. Milner (2000) examines how teachers can begin to pose critical questions regarding race through critical pedagogy. Many of the scholarly articles examine the inequalities of race that exist in education. In other cases, issues of gender, ethnicity, and cultural inequalities are addressed. Discerning these inequalities is essential for bringing about change. Generally, classrooms try to mirror in organizations what students and teachers would collectively like to see in the world outside of schools: respect for everyone’s ideas, tolerance of differences, a commitment to creativity and social and educational justice, the importance of working collectively, a willingness and desire to work hard for betterment of humanity, a commitment to anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-homophobic practices, etc (McLaren, 2005).

However, critical pedagogy brings with it the reminder that learners must be free to be themselves, to think for themselves, to behave intellectually without coercion from powerful elite, to cherish their beliefs and traditions and cultures without the threat of forced change (Brown, 2000).Critical pedagogy conceives the pedagogical site as a problematic space of racial, moral, and social tensions requiring deep interjections of social justice and civic courage. Giroux (1993) argues that schools are more than instructional place; they are cultural sites that actively are involved in the selective ordering and legitimization of particular forms of language, reasoning sociality, daily experience and style. According to McLaren̉ (1989 a), the aim is to integrate students’ abilities of critical reflections with their aspirations and potentials for social engagement and transformation.

Norton and Toohey (2004) argue that “advocates of critical approaches to second language teaching are interested

in relationships between language learning and social change. From this point of view, language is not simply a means of expression or communication; rather it is a practice that constructs, and is constructed by, the way language learners understand themselves, their social surroundings, their histories, and their possibilities for the futureˮ. In order to construct a critical pedagogy for language classroom, there is the need to change that belief of language teachers and many others. Second/foreign language learning should be seen as “education rather than an acquisition of a skill” (Guilherme, 2002, p. 189).

Sadeghi (2008) pointed out that the conventional language classrooms do little to advocate change in students’ social cognition since they do not address the issues of socio-political and cultural issues adequately. In other words, the shadow of a critical pedagogy is far too blur to cause what Sadeghi (2008) called a “transformational effect” on the learners. Akbari (2008) argues that implementation of a critical model in any local ELT context has a number of requirements, among which decentralization of decision making (in terms of content, teaching methodology, and testing) is of crucial importance. He, also, discusses that as long as course contents and testing methods are decided upon by ministries in capitals, ELT classes suffer from vague generalities and socio-political numbness. The great potential CP has in curriculum development and student empowerment will be actualized only when education, and by extension ELT, develops the required attitude, starts at the local level, and acknowledges the significance of learners’ experiences as legitimate departure points in any meaningful learning enterprise.

Despite the great importance laid on critical pedagogy and its implications in ELT and the importance of TEFL in Iran educational system, no one has ever tried to investigate the status of critical pedagogy implications in EFL teaching in Iranian High schools. This study is an attempt to probe into the use of CP in EFL classrooms and the barriers in the use of such an approach.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970) in general and critical applied linguistics (Pennycook, 2001 &Philipson 1992) in particular influenced ELT curriculum in almost all parts of the world. It seems that the main principles and assumptions underlying CP can to a great extent influence the process, outcomes, possible dangers, and effectiveness of learning and teaching English to non-speaking countries. English in Iran, like the other countries, is taught as a foreign language at junior high schools, high schools, and at tertiary levels. Therefore, it can lead to both negative and positive educational, racial, and cultural consequences. Despite the great emphasis laid on the importance of being critical, it is not really known whether Iranian English language teachers are all aware of Critical pedagogy in ELT. More specifically, it is not yet known whether different components of ELT curriculum which is widely practiced in educational system of Iran including textbook development, teaching styles and strategies, and testing methods and outcomes are all in line with principles of critical pedagogy. Moreover, it is not known whether Iranian English teachers pay attention to individual differences, needs, and perceptions, students negative and positive attitudes to what happens in an ELT setting, and learners᾽ involvement in teaching and learning process. In addition, the main barriers in following critical pedagogy principles in ELT classrooms are not still known.

DasStundenBuchRilke11final_anhang

متن کامل پایان نامه مقطع کارشناسی ارشد رشته :زبان المانی

عنوان : پایان نامه رشته زبان آلمانی:DasStundenBuchRilke11final_anhang

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Vorwort

Die vorliegende Arbeit ist eine Untersuchung, die zu einem besonderen Standpunkt in der Literatur führt. Die Rilke-Literatur bzw. Rilkes Dicthung ist ein gutes Beispiel für die Anwendung der Semiotik, ein tiefgehender Begriff in der Literatur ist.

Da Literatur und die Semiotik (ein Teilbreich der Sprachwissenschaft) mit den Themen beschäftigt sind, die für Studenten der Fachrichtung “DaF” sehr bedeutsam und lehrreich sein und sie durch diese wertvolle Einsichten in die Literatur gewinnen können, zählt dieses Thema zu einer wichtigen Unterrichtseinheit für DaF-Studenten.

Am Ende möchte ich mich bei meiner Betreuerin Frau Doktor Derakhshan Moghaddam für ihre hilfsreichen Hinweise und Unterstützung und bei meiner Mitbetreuerin Frau Doktor Goudarzpour bedanken. Die Vollendung der Arbeit verdanke ich den kritischen Ansichten von Frau Rafiee, die auf meiner Arbeit viel Acht gegeben, und die Arbeit sorgfältig durchgelesen hat. Und zum Schluss möchte ich mich bei all denjenigen bedanken, die mir zur Anfertigung dieser Magisterarbeit viel geholfen haben.

Einleitung

In dieser Arbeit wird zunächst das Konzept “Semiotik” und deren Anwendung in der Literatur betrachtet und untersucht.

Danach wird den berühmten Autor “Rainer Maria Rilke” vorgestellt, der zu den Dichtern des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts zählte und diesen Stil in seiner Dichtungen angewandet hat. Um der Zeitraum und die Art und Weise der Entstehungsart solcher Gedichter zu verdeutlichen, wird auf den Lebenslauf Rilkes viel Acht gegeben. Er war ein autobiografischer Autor. Seine Werke sind von seiner Biografie tief beeinflusst.

Der Hauptteil der Arbeit teilt sich in sieben Kapitel. In erstem Kapitel wird das semiotische Feld präsentiert. Das zweite Kapitel enthält das Leben und die Werke des Dichters “Rainer Maria Rilke”. Ein weiteres Kapitel enthält eine Erläuterung über “Das Stundenbuch“. Anschließend werden in drei Kapiteln die Gedichte des ersten Buches „Vom mönschichen Leben“ aus der semiotischen Sicht überprüft. Diese war sehr vielfältige Arbeit, da drei verschiedene Breiche untersucht werden mussten: zuerst über “Semiotik”, die selbst ein ausführlicher Begriff ist, was ich nur sehr zusammenfassend untersucht und in der Arbeit gebracht habe, dann über die Biografie des berühmten Schriftstellers “Rainer Maria Rilke” und sein Werk “Das Stundenbuch” und schließlich über den wichtigsten Teil der Arbeit “Interpretation der Gedichte im Stundenbuch aus der semiotischen Sicht”.

Um meine Ziele zu erreichen, habe ich folgende Schritte durchgeführt:

Im ersten Schritt habe ich die Verse mit Hilfe von Übersetzung des Buches untersucht.

Im zweiten Schritt, habe ich die in den Gedichten versteckten Symbole gefunden.

Im nächsten Schritt, sind die entdeckten Symbole anhand vorheriger und folgender Sätze bzw. Im Zusammenhang mit anderen Wörtern und Sätze, überprüft.

Im vierten Schritt, noch einmal die Symbole kontrolliert und erneuert.

Im letzten Schritt, sind die Metaphernsorte und die Vergleichen markiert.

Eine große Schwierigkeit der Arbeit lag darin, dass die geringe Verwendung von Zitaten einen selbst Produktiven Arbeit zu verleihen.

Zum Schluss im siebten Kapitel ist die Schlussfolgerung verfasst. Im Anhang ist die vollständige Übersetzung von “Stundenbuch” durch Herrn Ali Abdollahi beigefügt.

Semiotik

Semiotik

1.1.Definition

Die Semiotik ist ein Spezialgebiet der Sprachwissenschaft und befasst sich mit dem Zeichen aller Art bzw. die Wissenschaft von den Zeichen, Zeichensystem und Symbole in der Natur und Kultur. Ebenfalls ist “Semiotik”, ein Teilgebiet der Erkenntnistheorie, Philosophie und Wissenschaftstheorie.(Vgl. de.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotik: 28.7.2013, 12:45)

Die Ansätze der Zeichendefinitionen und somit der Semiotik reichen von der Funktion des Zeichens als Informationslieferant bis hin zum Kommunikationsmittel. Sie umfasst nicht nur empirische, sondern auch philosophisch-subjektive Ansätze, um des Zeichens auf den Kommunikation. Die Semiotik untersucht nach Sottong(1998, 11- 12) „einen zentralen Bereich der Kultur, das Funktionieren von Zeichen und Kodes in der menschlichen Kommunikation“.(Sottong: 1998: 11f.)

1.2. Geschichte

Obwohl der Begriff “Semiotik” seit der Antike erörtet ist, sind Ferdinand de Saussure(1857-1913) und Charles Sanders Peirce(1839-1914) als Basislegende Wissenschaftler für die heutige Semiotik berühmt. Peirce mehr als Semiotiker und Saussure als Begründer der modernen Linguistik.

Die Zeichenmodell und die Arbiträrität* ist wichtig für die Semiotik. Die Sprache hat eine große Bedeutung für de Saussure. Sie dient de saussure als Gegenstand. Dennoch werden andere Begriffe, wie z.B. das Schriff, das Taubstummenalphabet, symbolische Ritten, militärische Signale, Flaggenkodes, Blinderschriff auch von ihm berücksichtigt.

Das Zeichen nach de Saussure besteht aus einem Signifikat, dass die Form des Zeichens bestimmt und dem Signifikanten, der den Inhalt, die Bedeutung wiedergibt.

Von Peirce wurde auch die Textsemiotik geprägt. Die Zeichentheorie von Peirce hat zur Grundlage, dass „alles Denken notwendigerweise in Zeichen erfolgt.“ (Nöth: 1985: 35).

In der Zeichen-Definition von Peirce ist der relationale bzw. der funktionale Charakter zwischen Zeichen (repräsent), Objekt und Bedeutung (Interprätat) das Wesentliche. Nach Peirce entstehen Zeichen nur im Bewusstsein eines Interpreten, der die Relation zwischen diesen drei Einheiten herstellt.

Beide Definitionen stellen aber verschiedene Probleme dar und sind nicht komplett und fehlerfrei.

دستور زبان فرانسه در دانشگاه ها و برخی آموزشگاه های زبان در ایران

متن کامل پایان نامه مقطع کارشناسی ارشد رشته :زبان فرانسه

گرایش :آموزش

عنوان : پایان نامه رشته زبان فرانسه :دستور زبان فرانسه در دانشگاه ها و برخی آموزشگاه های زبان در ایران

دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی

واحد تهران مرکزی

دانشکده زبانهای خارجی گروه فرانسه

پایان نامه برای دریافت درجه کارشناسی ارشد(MA)

گرایش : آموزش

عنوان :

دستور زبان فرانسه در دانشگاه ها و برخی آموزشگاه های زبان در ایران

استاد راهنما:

خانم دکتر ندا آتش وحیدی

استاد مشاور:

آقای دکتر مهدی حیدری

تابستان ١٣٩٢

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TABLE DES MATIERES

INTRODUCTION

Chapitre I : L’historique des méthodes d’enseignement du français en Iran et la place de la grammaire dans chaque méthode

Regard sur les courants méthodologiques et l’évolution de la grammaire dans ces méthodologies

Approche communicative

Les méthodes privilégiées dans l’enseignement du français en Iran depuis les années soixante-dix

Chapitre II : Étude comparative des livres de grammaire les plus utilisés par les apprenants iraniens

Enseignement de la grammaire française

« Nouvelle Grammaire du Français, Cours de Civilisation Française de la SORBONNE»

« Grammaire progressive du français »

Une comparaison des leçons entre ces deux livres

Chapitre III : Analyse du questionnaire

Analyse du questionnaire

Conclusion partielle

Conclusion

Introduction

Le mot grammaire lui-même désigne l’ensemble des règles morphologiques et syntaxiques d’une langue et l’étude de celles-ci. La première grammaire du français apparaît avec Palsgrave en 1526 pour apprendre la langue française à une princesse anglaise qui doit se rendre en France.

Depuis les années 1970, on a pu assister à un renouveau de la grammaire dans l’enseignement du « français langue étrangère ». On a cessé de voir, dans cette discipline, un simple traité de règles destinées à inculquer aux élèves les normes de la langue écrite, de l’orthographe à la morphosyntaxe.

Les livres de classe des années 1960 suivaient en effet une ligne conforme à l’ancienne tradition grammaticale, ce qui explique l’absence de manuels de cette époque. L’ancienne grammaire normative dite « traditionnelle » tend donc à s’effacer derrière les grammaires structurales ou génératives, et les auteurs de manuels se libèrent de plusieurs siècles d’influence latine.

« La didactique de FLE a évolué de manière visible au long de ces dernières années en ce qui concerne les méthodologies et les contenus, mais aussi la pratique grammaticale, qui aurait pu sembler moins sujette à des bouleversements importants : introduction de nouvelles descriptions de la langue, type de pratiques proposées à l’apprenant, place de la grammaire dans l’unité de travail, rôle de l’enseignant. »

La remise en cause de la grammaire traditionnelle a provoqué de grands bouleversements dans les démarches didactiques. La didactique soulève d’ailleurs

à l’instar de la grammaire de nombreuses discussions. Pour cette raison, les auteurs cherchent toujours à les moderniser, à les adapter aux besoins de l’élève, à la classe de français, exploitant pour ce faire les différentes théories linguistiques modernes.

La nouvelle grammaire, loin d’être figée, s’intéresse aux recherches actuelles. Elle doit être un outil d’analyse et de production de la langue, elle incite à la réflexion sur son fonctionnement et a pour principal objectif la maîtrise des normes sociales autant que grammaticales. On insiste d’ailleurs sur la notion de communication, sur les relations humaines que permet, ou du moins que facilite une bonne maîtrise de la langue. Dans les années 1990, on entend certes enseigner l’ « expression » grâce à la grammaire, mais on cherche principalement à former les esprits, à engendrer des mécanismes de compréhension et d’élaboration de la langue. De cette optique découle l’ouverture de la grammaire actuelle aux autres domaines du français.

L’apprentissage de la grammaire doit conduire les élèves à saisir que le respect des règles de l’expression française n’est pas contradictoire avec la liberté d’expression : il favorise au contraire une pensée précise ainsi qu’un raisonnement rigoureux et facilement compréhensible. L’élève doit maîtriser suffisamment les outils de la langue que sont le vocabulaire, la grammaire et l’orthographe pour pouvoir lire, comprendre et écrire des textes dans différents contextes. L’apprentissage de la grammaire et de l’orthographe requiert des exercices spécifiques distincts de l’étude des textes.

Les causes et les aspects de la diversité et de l’évolution des manuels rendaient intéressante la confrontation de certains d’entre eux dans une étude historique de la transposition didactique de la grammaire. Les manuels ont été retenus en fonction de leur appartenance à trois générations, trois courants qui reflètent bien l’évolution de la didactique au cours de ces dernières années. La rupture avec la grammaire traditionnelle au début des années 1970 était une des phases de cette évolution.

Pourquoi enseigner la grammaire ?

Développer la réflexion sur la langue ; en faire comprendre le fonctionnement en système.

Faire acquérir un métalangage lié aux besoins de l’analyse et à la catégorisation des faits de langue.

Faire acquérir des compétences réflexives à mettre au service des activités langagières.

Améliorer la communication, favoriser la compréhension.

Quand on dit les mots par exemple arbre, chien, ciel que se passe-t-il dans votre tête ? Les images représentants de ces choses viennent à l’esprit. On peut s’exprimer au moyen des signes, au moyen de la parole et au moyen de l’écriture. Le langage est le moyen d’exprimer nos idées, Alors on enseigne la grammaire. Chaque langue a ses règles spéciales qui nous aident à la parler et à l’écrire correctement. Ces règles forment la grammaire. Elle nous enseigne à parler et à écrire sans faire des fautes.

« La construction de la langue se fait chez le jeune enfant par la recherche de solutions reposant sur la grammaire pour créer de nouveaux mot. »

Les difficultés des élèves sont le reflet de l’état de la grammaire actuelle. En effet, dans son livre Enseigner la grammaire et le vocabulaire à l’école: Pourquoi ? Comment? Renée Leon dresse un constat alarmant sur la grammaire. Cette dernière dénonce le manque de réflexion sur les finalités de l’enseignement grammatical.

[1] BOYER. H., BUTZBACH. M., PENDANX. M., Nouvelle introduction à la didactique du français langue étrangère, CLE International, Paris 1990, p.201.

[2] BARBERY. M., Grammaire une strate de conscience menant à la beauté, Gallimard, Paris 2007, p.2.

[3] LEON. Renée, Enseigner la grammaire et le vocabulaire à l’école, Hachette, Paris 2008, p.69.

Dissident Subcultures and Universal Dissidence in Imamu Amiri Baraka’s Selected Literary Works

متن کامل پایان نامه مقطع کارشناسی ارشد رشته :زبان انگلیسی

عنوان : پایان نامه رشته زبان انگلیسی:Dissident Subcultures and Universal Dissidence in Imamu Amiri Baraka’s Selected Literary Works

Islamic Azad University

Central Tehran Branch

Faculty of Foreign Languages

Department of English Language and Literature

A Dissertation for PhD Degree in English Literature

Subject:

Dissident Subcultures and Universal Dissidence in Imamu Amiri Baraka’s Selected Literary Works

Supervisor:

Dr. Alireza Jafari

Reader:

Professor Jalal Sokhanvar

Dr. Hamid Marashi

December 2014

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Abstract

This dissertation is the study of Amiri Baraka’s identity formation and the analysis of his selected literary works (poetry, drama, and fiction) including Transbluesency, Somebody Blew up America and Other Poems, Dutchman, The Slave, Experimental Death Unit 1, A Black Mass, Great Goodness of Life, The System of Dante’s Hell, and Tales of the Out and the Gone under the light of Political Criticism and Cultural Materialism. The researcher puts Baraka’s literary works within material contexts, such as historical, social, cultural, and political contexts, in order to argue that his literary texts are entangled with repressive and dominant ideologies like Neo-Colonialism, Capitalism, and Imperialism. This research attempts to scrutinize the notions of Althusser’s ideology, Sinfield’s dissidence, Foucault’s power, the possibilities of resistance, and subversion against the Western/White dominant power in Baraka’s major literary works. The main focus of this dissertation is on two terms, “dissident subculture” and “universal dissidence.” Political Criticism and Cultural Materialism provide an opportunity to find a formidable relationship between “race” and “class” issues with their focus on “dissidence,” which has been avoided so far in the critical studies of Baraka. The dynamics of the relationship between White and Black Americans, in the contemporary U.S.A., made Baraka’s literary works (produced through nearly five decades) appropriate texts of art for the political study of the notion of dissidence or the possibility of resistance. There are also contradictions within Baraka’s literary texts in that they extend the borders of the dominant powers such as Capitalism and Imperialism. Baraka’s literary characters attempt to gain power and insights into the experiences of the “dissidence,” however, these experiences lead them to reassess their own paradoxical situations. The researcher focuses on Baraka’s language and attempts to demonstrate that the structure of his texts deconstructs the conventions of prose or poetry writing. This research scrutinizes the hidden power structures and meanings, through revealing the negative role of the dominant ideology in identity formation of Black or the oppressed individuals. The researcher suggests that subcultures constitute consciousness; it is an opposing force which contains awareness and fights for its existence. The central argument of the present study is to demonstrate that “dissidence” has been formed within Black subcultures or in “universal dissidence.” Universal dissidence is the ultimate and perfect shape of “dissident subcultures.” In short, dissidence is the product of being within a subculture or a universal dissidence.

Keywords: cultural materialism, dissident subculture, political criticism, subversion, universal dissidence

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements IV

Abstract V

Chapter One: Introduction 1

1.1 General Background 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem 7

1.3 Objectives and Significance of the Study 13

1.3.1 Significance of the Study 13

1.3.2 Hypothesis 15

1.3.3 Purpose of the Study 16

1.3.4 Research Questions 17

1.4 Literature Review 19

1.5 Methodology and Approach 27

1.5.1 Definition of Key Terms 30

1.5.2 Limitation and Delimitation 35

1.6 Organization of the Study 36

Chapter Two: Political Criticism and Cultural Materialism 40

2.1 Marxism and Political Criticism 42

2.2 Hegemony 51

2.3 Ideology 55

2.4 Cultural Materialism 59

2.4.1 Raymond Williams and the Birth of Cultural Materialism 62

2.4.2 Michel Foucault and the Influence on Cultural Materialism 64

2.4.2.1 The Definition of Power: Traditional and Modern 65

2.4.2.2 Panopticism 70

2.4.2.3 Power and Resistance 75

2.4.3 The Dissident Reading of Literature 78

Chapter Three: A Bohemian Poet and Novelist 89

3.1 Ideological Issues in Beat Poetry of Young Amiri Baraka 91

3.2 The System of Dante’s Hell: An Outsider among Outsiders 103

3.2.1 Challenging the Discourse of Fiction Writing:

Creating a Dissident Voice 118

3.2.2 Radical Unconventional Characterization:

Involvement in a Subculture 123

3.2.3 A Confused Alien in Search of Meaning:

Political and Cultural Context 126

Chapter Four: Cursing the White Race 132

4.1 Baraka’s Harlem Poetry 133

4.2 Trying to Find a New Black Identity 145

4.3 African-American Drama and Baraka’s Profound Role 152

4.3.1 Dutchman: The Circular Story of the White and Blackness 158

4.3.2 The Slave: The Play of Racial Vandalism 172

Chapter Five: Constructing a Dissident Subculture 187

5.1 African American Poetry and the Role of Amiri Baraka 188

5.1.1 Black Nationalist Poetry: Redefinition and Enrichment

of Black Identity 193

5.1.2 Shaping a Black Dissident Subculture 221

5.1.3 Imamu Amiri Baraka: A Spiritual Leader among Black Americans 228

5.2 Revolutionary Playwright: Fighting with the White World 230

5.2.1 Experimental Death Unit #1: Planning a Revolution 232

5.2.2 A Black Mass: The Intense Hatred of White as the Secondary Race 240

5.2.3 Great Goodness of Life: The White Race as a Panoptic Force 251

Chapter Six: Universal Dissidence 262

6.1 Baraka’s Late Political Poetry and the Global Resistance 264

6.2 Tales of the Out and the Gone: Social and Cultural Short Stories 286

6.2.1 “War Stories”: Sociopolitical Matters in America

during the 1970s and 1980s 289

6.2.1.1 “New & Old”, “Neo-American” and “Mondongo”: Marxist Stories 290

6.2.1.2 “From War Stories”: What is True Democracy? 303

6.2.2 “Tales of the Out and the Gone”: Revolutionary Disorder 306

6.2.2.1 “The Rejected Buppie”: Racial Assimilation and Absurdity 309

6.2.2.2 Universal Rottenness and the Appreciation of

Black Music and Culture 311

6.2.2.3 “Conrad Loomis and the Clothes Ray”: Playing with Language 316

6.2.2.4 “Dream Comics”: Etymological Dissection 319

6.2.2.5 “Post- and Pre-Mortem Dialogue”: 9/11 Conspiracy Theories 321

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 327

7.1 Summing up 327

7.2 Findings and Implications 339

7.3 Suggestions for Further Research 348

Bibliography 352

Appendix 363

Figure 1 363

Figure 2 364

Figure 3 365

Figure 4 366

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1 General Background

In order to get a clear picture of Baraka’s ideology in his literary texts, the researcher intends to begin by Baraka’s biography. Imamu Amiri Baraka (October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), also known as Amiri Baraka and Everett LeRoi Jones, the writer of over fourteen volumes of poetry, dramatist (over twenty plays, three jazz operas), essayist (producer of seven volumes of nonfiction), fiction writer (two novels and several volumes of collected short stories), actor, movie director, and political activist, is a unique force in American literature[1]. He is considered by many to be one of the most influential and preeminent African-American literary figures of our time; for instance, Paul Vangelisti asserts “along with Ezra Pound, may be one of the most significant and least understood American poets

of our century” (Vangelisti xi). In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante registered Imamu Amiri Baraka on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

His practice as a cultural activist redefined the role of the modern American poet and playwright. He was best known for his powerful contribution, as writer and theorist, to the “Black Arts Movement” of the 1960s—Baraka is known as the founder of this movement. To mix the open forms of Black Mountain School poetry, the 1950s Beats and with the rhetorical and musical traditions of Black culture; he explosively expanded an urgent and aggressive African-American poetry and poetics. Literary historian and critic Arnold Rampersad recognizes Baraka as the main modernizing influence on Black poetry and names him, along with Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967) and others, as one of the eight writers “who have remarkably affected the course of African-American literary culture” (Harris xviii). Langston Hughes’s example and influence on Baraka was extensive and profound, and these two poets are plainly in sympathy in terms of formal experimentation, commitment to audience, and historical consciousness, even to the extent that Hughes’s “Broadcast to the West Indies” (1943) seems to make possible Baraka’s “SOS” (1967), and Baraka’s “When We’ll Worship Jesus” (1975) becomes a later 20th-century treatment of Hughes’s “Goodbye Christ” (1932). Other impacts on Imamu Amiri Baraka’s literary works include Black music especially blues and jazz music and Black American musicians, and the theory and practice of politicized Black American authors, as well as Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895), W. E. B. DuBois (1868 – 1963), Aimé Césaire (1913 – 2008), and Malcolm X (1925 – 1965) (Kimmelman 30). As a creative and powerful poet since the announcement of his first poems collection, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961), Amiri Baraka is also considered as a celebrated playwright, essayist, music critic, fiction writer, political activist, movie director, and editor.

Imamu Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoy Jones to a lower-middle-class household in Newark, New Jersey in 1934. Baraka’s initial work was published under the name LeRoi Jones. In 1967 Baraka selected the name Ameer Barakat (Blessed Prince), later “Bantuizing or Swahilizing” it to Amiri Baraka (Autobiography 267). He attended Rutgers and Howard Universities before joining the United States Air Force in 1954. His major fields of study were philosophy and religion. He continued his studies of comparative literature at Columbia University. He has taught at several schools, including the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Some of Amiri Baraka’s numerous awards and honors include an Obie Award for his play Dutchman (1964), the American Book Award’s Lifetime Achievement Award (1989), the Langston Hughes Award (1989), and PEN/Beyond Margins Award in 2008 for Tales of the Out and the Gone (2006). In 2001 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2002, Baraka was appointed to a controversial two-year term as poet laureate of New Jersey. He lived the rest of his life with his second wife, the poet Amina Baraka. Amiri Baraka died in Newark (his birthplace), New Jersey, in January 9, 2014 at the age of 79. His funeral was held at Newark Symphony Hall on January 18, 2014.

Relatively as a result of his capacity for the maximum statement and sense of dramatic timing, Baraka’s work is often seen as belonging to distinctly defined periods, what William J. Harris names as “Beat” (1957 – 1962), “Transitional” (1963 – 1964), “Black Nationalist” (1965 – 1974), and “Third-World Marxist” (1974 – 2014). During the Beat period, Amiri Baraka lived in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and Lower East Side, setting up a name as a poet and critic, co-editing the avant-garde journals Yugen and Floating Bear with Hettie Cohen and Diane Di Prima, respectively, and associating with avant-garde musicians, visual artists, and poets, including Allen Ginsberg (1926 – 1997), Robert Creeley (1926 – 2005), and Frank O’Hara (1926 – 1966) in the 1950s. In his Autobiography, The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka (1997), Baraka described himself at this time as being ‘“open’ to all schools within the circle of white poets of all faiths and flags. But what had happened to the blacks? What had happened to me? How is it that only the one colored guy?” (Kimmelman 157).

As a Black poet, playwright, and novelist in America then being transformed by the Civil Rights Movement, Baraka felt a growing dissatisfaction with the role of Black writer as disaffected outsider. A visit to Cuba in 1960 initiated a conscious process of politicization, which eventually resulted in a strong rejection of white aesthetics and society in favor of the separatist Black Arts movement (the incidents were among the first ones that persuaded him to establish a kind of Black “dissident and independent subculture” within the United States and a “universal dissidence” within the whole world), which Larry Neal has defined as “the aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept” (quoted in Kimmelman 30), although Baraka has identified Black music as being as fundamental to Black Arts as Black revolution.

Imamu Amiri Baraka’s Black Nationalist period was dramatically announced by his refusing of white Bohemian life-styles and his first wife (Hettie Cohen), after the assassination of Malcolm X in February 1965, his following move uptown to Harlem, where he founded the influential Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School, and getting married for the second time with a Black woman Sylvia Robinson (named Amina Baraka after their marriage). Later that year he moved back to Newark where he established the publishing company “Jihad Productions” and the arts space Spirit House, in addition to participating in Black revolutionary politics and politicization. One of his best-known poems of this period, “Black Art” (1966), announces his uncompromising poetics: “We want ‘poems that kill.’ / Assassin poems, Poems that shoot / guns.” For Baraka, the poem becomes a deadly weapon, and poetry—in rejection of W. H. Auden’s well-known dictum to the contrary from “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”—can and will make something happen. Baraka aimed to replace the silent reader of modernist poetry with a charged, thrilled, and articulate audience. His poem “SOS” (1967), both distress call and call to arms, issues an opening salvo to which Black people are asked to respond: “Black people, come in, wherever you are, urgent, calling / you, calling all black people” (Kimmelman 31).

In 1974 Baraka rejected cultural nationalism in favor of Marxism-Leninism as a way forward for Black revolution: “The last writing of this stopped somewhere in 1974, when we had become Communists finally, Amina and I. From there, there has been a whole whirl and world of changes and contradictions, unions and struggles until we gets into 1996” (Autobiography xi). In contrast to Black Nationalism, which he saw as racist, Marxism-Leninism offered solidarity not only among oppressed Blacks in the United States, Africa, and the West Indies, but also among oppressed classes everywhere. About the importance of racism in his life, Baraka stated:

The politics is the underlying catalyst, though. And it always is in all of our lives, were we conscious of it. The fact that I became a Communist is not startling to me, as much of a stomp down cultural nationalist as I at one time was. I was sincere, but I usually always am. The abject racism and economic super exploitation, denial of rights and national oppression, and the imperialist overbeing was pressed upon me even in the eastern city of LaLa Land, “The Village.” It grew, this sense of it, as I grew, intellectually, experientially, ideologically, … whatever. (The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka xi)

Although his “hate whitey” phase was more or less spent, Baraka’s passionate polemic still boiled in his first Marxist volume, Hard Facts (1975). “When We’ll Worship Jesus” exploits Black religious rhetoric while simultaneously ripping it apart, saying that we’ll worship Jesus, “When Jesus blow up / the white house” and “when he get a boat load of ak-47s / and some dynamite.” Baraka, who has resoundingly replaced the hesitant “I” of his early poetry with the collective “we,” declared “we can change the world / we aint gonna worship jesus cause jesus don’t exist” (“When We’ll Worship Jesus”). The intensely musical “In the Tradition” (1982), dedicated to avant-garde jazz musician Arthur

Blythe, shows Baraka at the top of his form, hooking together references to the great artistic and political traditions of Black leadership in a loose and exuberant rap: “our fingerprints are everywhere / on you America, our fingerprints are everywhere” (“In the Tradition”).

One of the paradoxes of Amiri Baraka’s poetry, fiction, and drama is the continued power of his literary works, old and new, to stir strong reactions despite their obvious grounding in specific historical contexts. His poems do not grow stale, perhaps because of their outrageous energy and humor. Baraka continued to be a poet of his time, as indicated by the Internet circulation of his poem, “Somebody Blew up America,” written shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The poem is a blasting indictment of white greed throughout history and became controversial because of its anti-Semitic questions: “Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed / Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / To stay home that day,” and Baraka’s subsequent statement that the Bush administration had advance knowledge of the attacks. Baraka’s refusal to resign as poet laureate led the New Jersey State Senate Government Committee to vote for a bill eliminating the position.

Imamu Amiri Baraka’s political and literary writings have created disputes over the years, especially his support of rape and severity towards (in various times during his long career) white people, gay people, and Jews. Analysts of Amiri Baraka’s writing have repeatedly explained such utilization as ranging from being vernacular utterances of Black oppression to complete instances of anti-Semitism, sexism, racism, homophobia, and that they regard in his works. Throughout his more than five decades of literary career, Amir Baraka has been discriminated against due to the racist and political attitudes.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The present dissertation seeks to closely scrutinize Amiri Baraka’s identity formation (during more than five decades of literary career) and read his selected literary works (including his poetry, drama and fiction) in terms of Political Criticism and Cultural Materialism concepts of power, resistance, ideology, dissidence and subversion with especial reference on political criticism and historical issues. Imamu Amiri Baraka’s major literary works, including drama, poetry, and fiction, that will be studied in this dissertation are: Dutchman (1964), one act play, The Slave (1964), a two act play, Experimental Death Unit #1 (1965), A Black Mass (1966), Great Goodness of Life (1967), The System of Dante’s Hell (1965), a novel that Baraka wrote in his youth, Transbluesency, selected poems from 1961 to 1995, Somebody Blew up America and Other Poems (2004), a short collection of Baraka’s late poems, and Tales of the Out and the Gone (2006), a short story collection. By focusing on these literary works, the researcher aims to analyze Baraka’s identity formation through the passage of time.

[1] The whole information about Amiri Baraka’s biography in the general background section of this dissertation is taken from Baraka’s official website, his Autobiography (1997), and Burt Kimmelman’s book Companion to 20th-Century American Poetry (2005).