Transatlantic Perspectives on Men, Women, and Other Primates: The Ape Motif in Kafka, Canetti, and Cooper's and Jackson's King Kong Films

Abstract

A comparative reading of Kafka's "Report for an Academy," Canetti's chapter "A Madhouse" from his novel Auto-da-Fé , and Cooper's and Jackson's film versions of King Kong reveals ongoing connections between the discourse on species, gender, race, and the status of human beings within the natural order. The cross-species relationships thematized in the texts suggest a critical or, in the case of Cooper, an optimistic attitude about Western civilization. The human-ape stories central to the texts provide the basic paradigm to examine social conditions and cultural conflicts, but they also serve as a commentary about the relationship of human and non-human animals, and about changing concepts of civilization and nature. The changing configurations of these human-ape relationships provide insight into the changing attitudes toward different species and environmental issues during the 20 th century. (DL)