『ガープの世界』の映画的技法についての覚書

A Note on a Cinematic Device in The World According to Garp

Ito Tamotsu

広島大学総合科学部紀要. V, 言語文化研究

Bulletin of the Faculty of Integrated Arts and Science, Hiroshima University. V, Studies in Language and Culture

A cinematic device "cutback" is used very effectively in The World According to Garp. While Milton is sucked by Helen, he grips the steering wheel, "as if he expected the three-ton Buick to suddenly lease the ground. (373)", that is, he is about to ejaculate. Just after this paragraph. Garp "hit the bottom of his driveway (373)" and coasts uphill in his wife's Volvo, which "was like that moment when you feel an airplane lift off the runway (374)". When the Volvo smashes into the Buick, Helen bites off Milton's penis, which she thinks at first is her tongue, but actually it is Garp who mangles his tongue. In Feminist criticism Penis is Pen. Because of the device of cutback, we can see that she indirectly bites off Garp's penis and tongue (=pen). This castoration is superimposed over his mother Jenny Fields' straddling his dying father Garp, which deprives him of his last word "Garp".

English and American literature [ 930 ]

jpn

広島大学総合科学部

[ISSN] 0385-1494

[NCID] AN00077749