Tarzan as a cultural prism: Ideological Associations in Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan of the Apes

Nora Hadi Q. Alseed

Abstract


More than any other of Burroughs’ many creations, Tarzan has become a staple of popular culture. The character functions as a cultural prism, in which the concerns, anxieties, desires, and tastes of particular times and places are encapsulated in such a way to make us look at that context in a different perspective. Burroughs’ original Tarzan embodies several of the aspirations, tensions, and failings of the early twentieth-century Unites States. On one hand, the novel refracts a national longing for an unspoiled nature, on another hand, the novel echoes the racism and violence directed at African Americans at this time.


Keywords


Edgar bourrough, American culture, African American ecoboding

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.2n.3p.120

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