Ride the Frontier: Exploring the Myth of the American West on Screen

by Flavia Brizio-Skov

Overview

With fresh appraisals of popular Westerns, this book examines the history of the genre with a focus on definitional aspects of canon, adaptation and hybridity.

The author covers a range of largely unexplored topics, including the role of "heroines" in a (supposedly) male-oriented system of film production, the function of the celluloid Indians, the transcultural and transnational history of the first spaghetti Western, the construction of femininity and masculinity in the hybrid Westerns of the 1950s, and the new paths of the Western in the 21st century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476683065
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	02/17/2021
Pages:	252
Sales rank:	712,316
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Flavia Brizio-Skov is a professor in the department of modern foreign languages and literatures at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has written several books and articles on contemporary writers, popular culture and cinema.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Why the Western? 1

1 Transnational Adaptation, Transculturation and Indigenization: Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters, Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars 13

Prologue 13

The National 16

The Origins: Local and Translocal 22

The Transnational 26

Conclusion 42

2 Celluloid Indians, 1950s Westerns and the Termination Act: Broken Arrow, White Feather, The Battle of Apache Pass, Devil's Doorway, The Last Wagon and The Last Hunt 45

Prologue 45

Broken Arrow (1950) 52

White Feather (1955) and The Battle of Apache Pass (1952) 57

Devil's Doorway (1950) 59

The Last Wagon (1956) 67

The Last Hunt (1956) 74

Conclusion 79

3 Heroines in Western Films? Mikhail Bakhtin's "Dialogic Imagination" in Shane, High Noon and Westward the Women 84

Monoglossia: The Submissive Woman and Shane (1953) 89

Heteroglossia: The Transgressive Woman and High Noon (1952) 93

X-glossia: Transformational Women and Westward the Women (1951) 100

4 Hybridity and (De)Construction of Femininity and Masculinity in Rancho Notorious, Johnny Guitar and Duel in the Sun 109

Rancho Notorious: The Filmic Text (1952) 111

Johnny Guitar: Paratext 121

Johnny Guitar: Peritext and the Novel (1953) 123

Johnny Guitar: The Filmic Text (1954) 127

Duel in the Sun (1946): Paratext 136

Duel in the Sun: The Novel (1944) 139

Duel in the Sun: The Filmic Text (1946) 141

Patriarchy and Failed Masculinities 143

Patriarchy and Failed Femininities 146

Capitalism and Patriotism 149

5 New Paths of the Western in the Third Millennium: The Lone Ranger, Yesterday and Today 152

The Western Genre Today 152

Enter The Lone Ranger: Prologue 155

The Lone Ranger Yesterday or How the West Was Conquered 156

The Lone Ranger (2013): Paratext 161

The Lone Ranger Today or How the West Was Lost 164

Chapter Notes 177

Bibliography 225

Index 233

Editorial Reviews

Scholars interested in the Western can learn a great deal from this book, which is intellectually ambitious and generously delivered.”—Italica: Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Italian

From the Publisher