Investigating Attitudes Toward Literature and Movies: Second Year LMD Students of English at UMMTO

Abstract

This research probes into the Algerian students’ attitudes to culture in movies and literature within the context of the literature and film studies classroom. Inspired by critical categories from cultural anthropology, and deploying a mixed method approach combining classroom observation, interview and questionnaires. It shows that students’ attitudes are hugely shaped by the native culture, most notably, the culture of shame which makes most students resist the predominantly popular culture of British and American movies, as well as the erotic dimensions of classical novels such as Jane Eyre. The degree of resistance varies from student to student according to the amount of exposure to the target culture and reading experience of the students. the latter, move generally from cultural resistance to cultural negotiation