19668 - One Hundred Years with Tarzan and Jane

Course Overview

“He knew she was created to be protected, and that he was created to protect her.” That’s how the hero reacted on first seeing Jane in Tarzan of the Apes. We’ll examine the relationship between the two in this 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, in the 1932 Johnny Weismuller movie Tarzan the Ape Man, the Disney 1999 full-length cartoon Tarzan, and Robin Maxwell’s 2012 revisionist novel Jane, the Woman who Loved Tarzan. We’ll examine and discuss sections of the four works to see how the portrayals of the relationship between the two are influenced by the cultural contexts of the times in which the books/films were produced and we’ll examine the image of Africa that is created as a backdrop for the love stories.