Reseña del editor:
Lee Clark Mitchell argues in this study that is not stereotypical props and images that give Westerns their perennial appeal, but the genre's deftness in addressing the fears and obsessions of its (eastern) audience. Over the years no obsession has figured more prominently, asserts Mitchell, than the question of what it means to be a man. Ranging from the novels of James Fenimore Cooper to Zane Grey, and from classic films like "High Noon" to spaghetti Westerns like "The Wild Bunch", Mitchell seeks to show how Westerns helped assuage a series of crises in American culture, including debates about nationalism, suffragetism, the white slave trade and liberal social policy.
Contraportada:
Ranging from the novels of James Fenimore Cooper to Louis L'Amour, and from classic films like Stagecoach to spaghetti Westerns like A Fistful of Dollars, Mitchell shows how Westerns helped assuage a series of crises in American culture, including debates and nationalism, suffragetism, the White Slave Trade, liberal social policy, even Dr. Spock. At the same time, Westerns have addressed issues of masculinity by setting them against various backdrops: gender (women), maturation (sons), honor (violence, restraint), and self-transformation (the West itself). Mitchell argues, for instance, that Westerns repeatedly depict men being punished as pretext for allowing them to recover, restoring themselves once again to full manhood. In Westerns, a man must continually work at being a man. The most extensive study of Westerns to appear in twenty-five years, Mitchell's book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the genre as well as for students of film, masculinity, and American Studies.
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