In 1893, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner declared that ‘American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character.’ His statement exemplifies how the western frontier has long been mythologised as the wellspring of American national identity. As his remarks also illustrate, the frontier has been in constant flux in terms of its location, geography and meanings; consequently, the attached national myth has had to evolve.

On this module, we will analyse the creation, development and contestation of the myth of the Wild West by examining different literary and cinematic works. We will explore this myth’s significance for constructions of nationality, individual selfhood, gender and political affiliation. As well as engaging with many ‘classic’ examples, we will consider how more critical or revisionist Westerns have reinterpreted this period of American ‘history’, often by condemning its violence, racism and gender politics. Meanwhile, we will be tracing the fortunes of one of twentieth-century America’s most influential popular culture genres. In particular, we will examine the development of both literary and cinematic Westerns to gain greater understanding of their mutual borrowings and influence. Over the course of the module, the diverse range of texts will enable us to pose and theorise larger questions about the formation of literary and cinematic genres.

• Explain the importance of the Western to different constructions of American identity.
• Locate these constructions of American identity within their varied cultural, social and historical contexts. 
• Articulate the development and cross-influence of the Western as both a literary and cinematic genre.
• Identify and describe key concepts relating to genre and genre theory.

The module will be delivered through a one-hour lecture and a two-hour seminar each week. Providing historical and cultural context, the lectures will also give insight into key critical and theoretical debates as well as analysis of the primary texts. The lectures will enable students to participate in the seminars, which will require students to contribute to small and large group discussions. The seminars will also feature other secondary materials to stimulate discussion, including film clips.

During the weeks when the primary text to be discussed is a film, there will be a screening. Additionally, the films will be available for loan from the library.

In some weeks, students will be assigned extra reading to enhance understanding of the primary literary or cinematic text. Any supplementary texts will be provided either electronically, through Learning Central, or in hard copy.

• Close reading of both literary and cinematic texts.
• Undertaking interdisciplinary research.
• Argumentation.
• Written communication through the assessed essay.

Written Assessment

100% Essay

3200 words
 

THE POTENTIAL FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

In accordance with University regulations, students are allowed two attempts at retrieval of any failed essay, for a maximum module mark of 40%.  Resit assessments are held over the summer.

Primary Texts

James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

Frederick Jackson Turner, ‘The Significance of the Frontier in American History’ (1893)
Extracts from Zane Grey, Western Union (1939)

Western Union (dir. Fritz Lang, 1941)

High Noon (dir. Fred Zinnemann, 1952)

Excerpts from Johnny Guitar (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1954)

The Searchers (dir. John Ford, 1956)

Annie Get Your Gun (dir. George Sidney, 1950)

Blazing Saddles (dir. Mel Brooks, 1974)

Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West (1985)
Unforgiven (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1992)

Annie Proulx, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ (1997)

Brokeback Mountain (dir. Ang Lee, 2005)

Weekly Schedule

Week 1: Introduction
Frederick Jackson Turner, ‘The Significance of the Frontier in American History’ (1893)

Week 2: Early Origins and Colonial Landscapes
James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

Week 3: Myths of Progress and Nostalgia
Extracts from Zane Grey, Western Union (1939)
Western Union (dir. Fritz Lang, 1941)

Week 4: Un-American Allegories
High Noon (dir. Fred Zinneman, 1952).
Excerpts from Johnny Guitar (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1954)

Week 5: ‘A Man’s Gotta Do…’
The Searchers (dir. John Ford, 1956)

Week 6: Reading Week

Week 7: The Women of the West
Annie Get Your Gun (dir. George Sidney, 1950)

Week 8: Parody, Subversion and Critique
Blazing Saddles (dir. Mel Brooks, 1974)
Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West (1985)

Week 9: The Revisionist and the Anti-Western
Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West (1985)
Unforgiven (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1992)

Week 10: The Neo-Western
Annie Proulx, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ (1997)
Brokeback Mountain (dir. Ang Lee, 2005)

Week 11: Essay Writing Guidance
 

Buscombe, Edward and Roberta E. Pearson (eds.) Back in the Saddle Again: New Essays on the Western (London: BFI, 1998)

Kitses, Jim, Horizons West: Directing the Western from John Ford to Clint Eastwood, (London: BFI, 2004)

Kitses, Jim and Gregg Rickman (eds.), The Western Reader (New York: Limelight, 1998)

Lenihan, John H., Showdown: Confronting Modern America in the Western Film (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985)

Lusted, David, The Western (Harlow: Pearson/Longman, 2003)

Milner II, Clyde A., Carol A. O'Connor and Martha A. Sandweiss (eds.), The Oxford History of the American West (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994)

Mitchell, Lee Clark, Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996)

Neale, Stephen (ed.), Genre and Contemporary Hollywood (London: BFI, 2002)

Neale, Stephen, Genre and Hollywood (London: BFI, 2000)

Prats, Armando Jose, Invisible Natives: Myth and Identity in the American Western (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002)

Rollins, Peter C. and John E. Connor (eds.), Hollywood’s West: The American Frontier in Film, Television and History (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2005)

Schatz, Thomas, Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking and the Studio System (New York, N.Y : McGraw-Hill, 1981)

Simmon, Scott, The Invention of the Western: A Cultural History of the Genre’s First Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)

Slotkin, Richard, Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America (New York, NY: Atheneum, 1992) 

Stoddard, Scott F. (ed.), The New Western: Critical Essays on the Genre Since 9/11 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016)

Western Literature Association, A Literary History of the American West (Fort Worth, TX: Texas Christian University, 1987)  

Western Literature Association, Updating the Literary West (Fort Worth, TX: Texas Christian University, 1997)  

Witschi, Nicolas S. (ed.), A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American West (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011)

Further information about recommended reading will be provided at the start of the module.