Return of the Western
Refracting Genre, Representing Gender in the Twenty-First Century
Published on 28. February 2025
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-1-3995-2472-8 (ISBN)
Description
Transmitting the crisis that Frederick Jackson Turner and Theodore Roosevelt feared when the frontier closed, the Western has returned to reveal a cultural watershed at work in twenty-first century America, revitalized with horror, terror and the peccant. Darkened and dystopic, contemporary Westerns point to a national bankruptcy, upending the notion that regenerative, civilizing impulses direct nation-building. Exploring films like Open Range (2003), Yahsi Bati (2010), The Keeping Room (2015), Little Woods (2018), and First Cow (2019), as well as television series like Justified (2010-1015), Longmire (2012-2017), Westworld (2016-2022), and Yellowstone (2020 -), this thought-provoking collection examines re-constituted masculinities, feminine re-fashioning and new directions in Western filmmaking. Covering a wide range of aesthetic and thematic concerns, Return of the Western: Refracting Genre, Representing Gender in the Twenty-First Century reminds us how deeply this versatile genre is grounded in the American psyche.
Reviews / Votes
Interpreting a range of recent Western and Western-adjacent media, Matheson and her contributors see a dark mirror of contemporary America-where old myths are swept away to reveal moral decay and cultural instability. These bold and often provocative essays are sure to spark debate about what the Western means today. * Andrew Patrick Nelson, Chief Curator of Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Illustrations
23 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
682 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3995-2472-8 (9781399524728)
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
Unknown | Sue Matheson
Return of the Western
Refracting Genre, Representing Gender in the Twenty-First Century
E-Book
02/2025
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€220.99
Available for download
Person
Sue Matheson is Full Professor of English at the University College of the North in Manitoba, Canada. Her interests in film, culture, and literature may be found in more than sixty articles published in a wide range of books and scholarly journals. She is the editor of Love in Western Film and Television: Happy Hearts and Lonely Trails, A Fistful of Icons: Essays on Frontier Fixtures of the American Western, Women in the Western and The Good, the Bad and the Ancient: Essays on the Greco-Roman Influence in Westerns. She is the author of The Westerns and War Films of John Ford and The John Ford Encyclopedia.
Content
Figures
Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Rethinking the American frontier-Frederick Jackson Turner, Neurasthenia, and the Contemporary Western - Sue Matheson
1. "Free to be not important:" Variety and Versatility in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) - Stella Hockenhull
PART ONE RE-CONSTITUTED-CONTEMPORARY COWBOYS
2. "I've Grown Old:" Star Embodiment and Aging Masculinity in the Westerns of Kevin Costner and Jeff Bridges - Gaylyn Studlar
3. Jesse James: Melancholy Aesthetics at the End of Cowboy Politics - Christopher Minz
4. "Next one's comin' faster:" The Vigilante Lawman in FX's Justified (FX, 2010-15) - Brian Brems
5. "I aim to show that he's a man like any other:" Demythologizing Frontier Masculinity in The Proposition (2005) - Christopher J. Olson
6. Lords of the Plains: The Conemporary Western and Discourse in Hell or High Water (2016) - Kelly MacPhail
7. Baking Soda Buddies: Frontier Friendship/Capitalist Critique in Kelly Reichardt's First Cow - Sue Matheson
PART TWO RE-FASHIONED-21ST-CENTURY FRONTIERSWOMEN
8. Deviations from type: the female gaze in a Frontier setting in Ron Howard's The Missing (2003) - Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris
9. Sexual Terrorism, Gender, and Race in The Keeping Room (2014): Revisioning the Revenge Western
Fran Pheasant-Kelly
10. Subverting Classic Western Codes and Women's Empowerment in Meek's Cutoff (2010) - Gilles Menegaldo
11. Doing What Westerns Do: Nia DaCosta's Little Woods (2018) and the Representation of the "New West" - Erin Lee Mock
12. Screening Femininities in Deadwood (HBO, 2004-6) - Claire Dutriaux
PART III. RE-FORMED- THE 21ST-CENTURY FRONTIER
13. The (Un)Making of Civilization in the post-2000 Western - Martin Holtz
14. The Land and its Relationship to Justice in Longmire (A&E, 2012-14; Netflix, 2015 - 17) - Andrew Howe
15. A "Safe Place": The Western "Home" and its Mutation in Logan (2017) - J. Paul Johnson
16. "We have always been posthuman:" Towards Post-Anthropocentric Perspectives in Westworld (HBO, 2016-22) - Katarzyna Nowak-McNiece
17. Revelations in the Old West - Cynthia J. Miller
18. Postcolonial Discourses of "Hobbyism," Cultural Appropriation, and Historical Memory in Global Transnational Westerns - Khani Begum
19. Westerns in Turkey and the Contemporary Turco-Western: Genre, Gender, and Transnationality in Yahsi Bati (2010) - Ilyas Deniz Cinar
20. The Western Rides into the Twenty-First Century: A Bibliography - Camille McCutcheon
Index
Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Rethinking the American frontier-Frederick Jackson Turner, Neurasthenia, and the Contemporary Western - Sue Matheson
1. "Free to be not important:" Variety and Versatility in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) - Stella Hockenhull
PART ONE RE-CONSTITUTED-CONTEMPORARY COWBOYS
2. "I've Grown Old:" Star Embodiment and Aging Masculinity in the Westerns of Kevin Costner and Jeff Bridges - Gaylyn Studlar
3. Jesse James: Melancholy Aesthetics at the End of Cowboy Politics - Christopher Minz
4. "Next one's comin' faster:" The Vigilante Lawman in FX's Justified (FX, 2010-15) - Brian Brems
5. "I aim to show that he's a man like any other:" Demythologizing Frontier Masculinity in The Proposition (2005) - Christopher J. Olson
6. Lords of the Plains: The Conemporary Western and Discourse in Hell or High Water (2016) - Kelly MacPhail
7. Baking Soda Buddies: Frontier Friendship/Capitalist Critique in Kelly Reichardt's First Cow - Sue Matheson
PART TWO RE-FASHIONED-21ST-CENTURY FRONTIERSWOMEN
8. Deviations from type: the female gaze in a Frontier setting in Ron Howard's The Missing (2003) - Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris
9. Sexual Terrorism, Gender, and Race in The Keeping Room (2014): Revisioning the Revenge Western
Fran Pheasant-Kelly
10. Subverting Classic Western Codes and Women's Empowerment in Meek's Cutoff (2010) - Gilles Menegaldo
11. Doing What Westerns Do: Nia DaCosta's Little Woods (2018) and the Representation of the "New West" - Erin Lee Mock
12. Screening Femininities in Deadwood (HBO, 2004-6) - Claire Dutriaux
PART III. RE-FORMED- THE 21ST-CENTURY FRONTIER
13. The (Un)Making of Civilization in the post-2000 Western - Martin Holtz
14. The Land and its Relationship to Justice in Longmire (A&E, 2012-14; Netflix, 2015 - 17) - Andrew Howe
15. A "Safe Place": The Western "Home" and its Mutation in Logan (2017) - J. Paul Johnson
16. "We have always been posthuman:" Towards Post-Anthropocentric Perspectives in Westworld (HBO, 2016-22) - Katarzyna Nowak-McNiece
17. Revelations in the Old West - Cynthia J. Miller
18. Postcolonial Discourses of "Hobbyism," Cultural Appropriation, and Historical Memory in Global Transnational Westerns - Khani Begum
19. Westerns in Turkey and the Contemporary Turco-Western: Genre, Gender, and Transnationality in Yahsi Bati (2010) - Ilyas Deniz Cinar
20. The Western Rides into the Twenty-First Century: A Bibliography - Camille McCutcheon
Index