the myth of the american west - oldham's...
TRANSCRIPT
The Myth of the American West
Basics of the Myth(s)
Land of Opportunity Rugged Individualism Innocence Fate and Destiny Re-invention of identity “Safety valve” Adventure, romance, violence, triumphalism Agrarian Myth/Garden of Eden
The Basics, continued Benevolent expansion “The Frontier” Wild nature and Indians Progress & improvement of land Icons: cowboy, Indian, gunslinger, lawman, covered wagon, log cabin,
mountain man, “settlers,” farmer
Paintings and Engravings
Frontier Prototype (1823-1840s)
James Fennimore Cooper
Last of the Mohicans The Deerslayer The Pioneer The Prairie
Natty Bumppo: romantic frontier hero of the wild. Half savage-civilized. Individualist, strong, true
…continued
Davy Crockett & Daniel Boone
Immortalized with folk-tales and stories
Pop culture hero Wishes and dreams of
imperial expansion Frontiersman
19th Century Artists
George Catlin Karl Bodmer Albert Bierstadt Frederic Remington Charles Russell Thomas Moran
Shaped public ideas of the west, lands, people
Idealized, stereotypes,
Catlin, “Buffalo Hunt, Chase”
Catlin, “Indians attacking Grizzly”
Alfred Jacob Miller, 1840s
Thomas Moran
George Bingham, 1852, “Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap”
C.M. Russell
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Industrial Nostalgia “Modern” technological,
mechanical, corporate, urban, scientific, secular, professional
Something “lost” in America Longing, missing the imagined
past How to maintain rugged
individualism while working for corporate America
Land and democracy vs. urban America and interdependency
Rescuing the Masculine Frontier
Theodore Roosevelt -Easterner turned Westerner -“The Strenuous Life” -The Winning of the West -Expansionist -Philippines, Cuba, etc Rugged male individualism
in age of industrialization “Cowboy President”
Gunfighter, early 1910s Troopers on the Trail
Western Dime Novels Max Brand Clarence Mulford Zane Grey Louis L’Amour Larry McMurtry Tony Hillerman
Recycling storylines for mass production
Early Movies: “Westerns”Edwin Porter (1903) Great Train Robbery had hold-ups,
villains, shoot-outs, bad-good guys, adventure Cecil B. DeMille (1913) Squaw Man The Gunfighter (1917) James Cruze (1923) The Covered Wagon
Teaching immigrants about American history Mass production, low culture, consumer culture Entertainment is not historical accuracy Standard stories about American greatness,
progress, exceptionalism, simplification
Television: The 1950s & 1960s Constructing a modern
American “hero” Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Little
House on the Prairie, Lone Ranger, Maverick
Cold War America (good vs. bad)
“Consensus” on American traditions & identity
Unanimity = patriotism Diversity & skepticism =
subversion
The Western (America’s Original Literature) Ingredients
Lassos, Colt 45’s, long-horned steers, rugged landscape with mountains in the distance, stagecoaches, Stetson Hats
Outlaws, lawmen, gunfighters, indians, ranchers, farmers
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Elements of The Western Conquest of the wilderness Confiscation of territorial rights over original
inhabitants Society organized around codes of honor
rather than rationalistic, abstract law No larger social order than immediate peers
and family
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The Western Hero Cowboy or Outlaw
A “knight” of the frontier Semi-nomadic wanderer Fighting villains or a changing society that would
infringe upon his personal freedom is bound to no social norms other than his own
personal code of honor
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The Western Hero The traditional Western takes these elements
and creates a simple morality tale where the hero survives and endures through toughness and not compromising his code of honor More recent westerns will reveal a landscape that
is morally ambiguous where the hero fights against a changing world
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The Western Hero Often stress the harshness of the wilderness Settings will frequently include
isolated forts ranches and homesteads The Native American village The small frontier town with a saloon, store, and
jailhouse
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Bonanza Gunsmoke
Comic Books
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Consuming the West
George Bush, The Cowboy President
-Reinvention of identity to fit Western Iconography
-Connecticut Family-Wealth enabled him to avoid
Vietnam-Father was career politician
in “big government”-Yale “educated”-Failed oil and business man
Cowboy hat, boots Wanted: Dead or Alive “Bring ‘em On” “Shoot from the hip” Chopping Wood Crawford Ranch Ford Pickup Truck