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WRITE, RIGHT, WHITE, RITE: LITERACY, IMPERIALISM, RACE, AND CANNIBALISM IN EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS' TARZAN OF THE APES.(Critical Essay)

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From: Studies in American Fiction
Date: 19990322
Author:Berglund, Jeff

This article presents the imperialist identification of whiteness with literacy in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 'Tarzan of the Apes.' Illogical portrayal of the learning process, the imposition of American myth on Tarzan's character, and the rhetoric of cannibalism as a cultural expression are discussed.

Squatting upon his haunches on the table top in the cabin his father had built--his smooth, brown, naked little body bent over the book which rested in his strong slender hands, and his great shock of long, black hair falling about his well shaped head and bright, intelligent eyes--Tarzan of ...

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