
Cowboy Classics
The Roots of the American Western in the Epic Tradition
Kirsten Day(Author)
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 27. May 2016
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-4744-0246-0 (ISBN)
Description
In the American psyche, the "Wild West" is a mythic-historical place where our nation's values and ideologies were formed. In this violent and uncertain world, the cowboy is the ultimate hero, fighting the bad guys, forging notions of manhood, and delineating what constitutes honor as he works to build civilization out of wilderness. Tales from this mythical place are best known from that most American of media: film. In the Greco-Roman societies that form the foundation of Western civilization, similar narratives were presented in what for them was the most characteristic, and indeed most filmic, genre: epic. Like Western film, the epics of Homer and Virgil focus on the mythic-historical past and its warriors who worked to establish the ideological framework of their respective civilizations. Through a close reading of films like High Noon and Shane, this book examines the surprising connections between these seemingly disparate yet closely related genres, shedding light on both in the process.
Reviews / Votes
Cowboy Classics is a straight-talking study in cultural reception. Day's analyses of Golden Age western films in light of Homer and Virgil are nuanced and deeply persuasive. Her work has much to teach us about heroism, gender, and the shaping of cultural identity, in both the present and the past. * Geoff Bakewell, L. Palmer Brown Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities, Rhodes College * Day covers a number of aspects exploring both genres and goes in detail concerning important aspects of the heroic characters such as (sparse) language used, the complex system of ideal manhood (and gender roles in general) and the insistence to stand one's ground to fight for an ideal or justice. Her solid chapter on High Noon in particular makes this very clear. Recommend reading for any fan of Westerns, classic epic or scholar of American Studies. -- Alexander Ebert * popcultureshelf.com *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
20 black and white illustrations, 1 black and white table
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
567 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4744-0246-0 (9781474402460)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
05/2016
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€92.49
Available for download
Person
Kirsten Day is Associate Professor of Classics at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois where she lives with her husband Sean and sons Harper and Owen. A native of Arkansas, she received her B.A. from Rice University, completed her graduate work at the University of Arkansas, and studied at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. Her research interests include women in antiquity and classics in popular culture.
Author
Associate Professor and Chair at the Department of Classics_x000D_Augustana College
Content
Prologue
1. Howard Hawks's Red River
2. Fred Zinnemann's High Noon
3. George Stevens's Shane
4. John Ford's The Searchers
5. John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Conclusion
1. Howard Hawks's Red River
2. Fred Zinnemann's High Noon
3. George Stevens's Shane
4. John Ford's The Searchers
5. John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Conclusion