Tarzan of the Apes に見る男性性の再活性化-「野生」を母とするサバイバル戦略

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No serious literary critics have counted Edgar Rice Burroughs' novels as canonical American literature. However, in the light of Cultural Studies, we should not overlook the contribution his works have made to the American culture. In this paper I reread Tarzan of the Apes from the perspective of Gender Studies, specifically focusing on the protagonist's masculinity, while placing the novel in the American socio-cultural context at the turn of the twentieth century. Tarzan's father, Lord Greystoke John Clayton, resolves to become a"primeval man" and expects his wife Alice to be a "primeval woman" when they are deserted and are forced to survive in the African jungle. However, infant Tarzan is taken away from him as a changeling by Kala, a female Ape, and is nurtured by her wild but genuine mother's love. After her death, Tarzan attains his primeval manhood and comes into the kingship of the Apes. Sociologist Anthong E. Rotundo calls this new type of manhood"passionate manhood" which puts higher value on physical strength than mental strength. This type was first shaped by the Civil War, and then nurtured by Darwinism in the late nineteenth century. In this socio-cultural environment men spoke of their masculine nature using phrases like "animal instinct" and"animal energy." At the root of the change was"masculine anxiety, " and in response to it, various institutions enlightened and educated adolescents. For instance, baseball and the Boy Scout of America were utilized to invigorate American manhood. Also, the discourse on revitalizing manhood was most pervasive in President Theodore Roosevelt's speeches. For him "strenuous masculinity" was a key force m expanding the American Empire. It was within the same socio-cultural context that Burroughs created Tarzan as "the personification of the primitive man" and the audience accepted it. Tarzan encounters his match, Jane Porter who later transforms into a "primeval woman." However, at the end of the novel she engages herself to Cecil Clayton, a civilized Englishman. The only remedy for Tarzan is to articulate that his mother was an Ape, despite verification of his heredity from his fingerprints. Thus, his words "My mother was an Ape" has become the strategy not only for Tarzan himself but also for every audience who is mesmerized by Tarzan's masculinity and who also needs to survive in the industrialized, competitive, and complex modern world.
神戸女学院大学の論文

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吉田純子
神戸女学院大学

Tarzan of the Apes に見る男性性の再活性化-「野生」を母とするサバイバル戦略

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