Tarzan swings into Paris
Tarzan of the Apes, an Englishman who becomes king of the jungle, was
created by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs a century ago. Now, the
comic book hero is the subject of an exhibition at a new museum in Paris.
Rice Burroughs wrote 24 Tarzan stories and there have been 42 Tarzan films.
Clearly an icon if ever there was, Tarzan is now the star attraction at
Paris's new and rather magnificent ethnological museum, the Quai Branly. The
show brings together comic books, film extracts, stuffed animals and African
artefacts that tell us a bit about Tarzan and a lot about the way westerners
see - or used to see - Africa...
...In the books he gets back to England, attends Oxford University and learns
12 languages including Latin before returning to the jungle. A far cry from
the films where Tarzan is depicted as someone who can barely speak at all,
save for a few varied grunts.
Tarzan was also a vehicle for Rice Burroughs's opinions. The American
loathed religion and loved Darwin, for example, and alongside the dynamic
and sinewy cartoon strip drawings by Burne Hogarth, the exhibition includes
caricatures drawn during the first debates about Darwin's "Origin of
Species." It's possible to read Rice Burroughs's story of the King of the
Apes and Lord of the Jungle as a fairytale version of Darwin's theories
about the birth of Man and the survival of the fittest.
"Through his Darwinism he was also interested in the idea of different races
which we now know is something a little bit weird, so there is a kind of
dark side to Tarzan," explains Stéphane Martin, the director of the Quai
Branly museu and the man who had the idea for the exhibition.
He is the first to admit that this white man in a loincloth subjugating not
only Jane but everything around him is a political walk on the wild side.
But, he says, even politically, Tarzan has some redeeming features...
...But if Tarzan was culturally a bit of an odd one, he wasn't nearly as odd as
the Africa you see in the films. Rice Burroughs never went to Africa. And it
didn't seem to bother any of the film producers that there were tigers in
Tarzan's African jungle, for example, or that Tarzan encountered Vikings or
Ancient Romans on his adventures.
Tarzan's Africa was as boundless as the bottom of a magician's hat. Anything
could come out of it. These days, we wouldn't take such liberties. Or would
we? Stéphane Martin believes Western pop culture has developed a taste for
the exotic which is very Tarzan-esque indeed...
Read entire article at Deutsche Welle
created by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs a century ago. Now, the
comic book hero is the subject of an exhibition at a new museum in Paris.
Rice Burroughs wrote 24 Tarzan stories and there have been 42 Tarzan films.
Clearly an icon if ever there was, Tarzan is now the star attraction at
Paris's new and rather magnificent ethnological museum, the Quai Branly. The
show brings together comic books, film extracts, stuffed animals and African
artefacts that tell us a bit about Tarzan and a lot about the way westerners
see - or used to see - Africa...
...In the books he gets back to England, attends Oxford University and learns
12 languages including Latin before returning to the jungle. A far cry from
the films where Tarzan is depicted as someone who can barely speak at all,
save for a few varied grunts.
Tarzan was also a vehicle for Rice Burroughs's opinions. The American
loathed religion and loved Darwin, for example, and alongside the dynamic
and sinewy cartoon strip drawings by Burne Hogarth, the exhibition includes
caricatures drawn during the first debates about Darwin's "Origin of
Species." It's possible to read Rice Burroughs's story of the King of the
Apes and Lord of the Jungle as a fairytale version of Darwin's theories
about the birth of Man and the survival of the fittest.
"Through his Darwinism he was also interested in the idea of different races
which we now know is something a little bit weird, so there is a kind of
dark side to Tarzan," explains Stéphane Martin, the director of the Quai
Branly museu and the man who had the idea for the exhibition.
He is the first to admit that this white man in a loincloth subjugating not
only Jane but everything around him is a political walk on the wild side.
But, he says, even politically, Tarzan has some redeeming features...
...But if Tarzan was culturally a bit of an odd one, he wasn't nearly as odd as
the Africa you see in the films. Rice Burroughs never went to Africa. And it
didn't seem to bother any of the film producers that there were tigers in
Tarzan's African jungle, for example, or that Tarzan encountered Vikings or
Ancient Romans on his adventures.
Tarzan's Africa was as boundless as the bottom of a magician's hat. Anything
could come out of it. These days, we wouldn't take such liberties. Or would
we? Stéphane Martin believes Western pop culture has developed a taste for
the exotic which is very Tarzan-esque indeed...