Write a 15-page research paper on the topic Evolution of the Western Genre from dime novel to streaming mediao - Imagining the West using a minimum of 12 primary and secondary scholarly total sources.

Annotated Bibliography

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Annotated Bibliography

Scholarly Sources

Starling, N. (2023). Origins of a Genre: Early Influences on the Western Before Film (Doctoral dissertation, Valdosta State University).

In this recent doctoral dissertation, Natalie Starling examines the early sources that influenced and helped establish tropes for the Western genre before the advent of Western films in the early 20th century. Starling traces influences from historical accounts of Western expansion, dime novels of the late 19th century, Wild West shows, and paintings that romanticized and mythologized the frontier experience. Through qualitatively analyzing these primary source materials, Starling identifies common narrative patterns and character archetypes, such as the rugged individualist adventurer, that would later become staples of Western films. The dissertation makes an important contribution by focusing scholarly attention on the origins of Western genre conventions in pre-cinema popular media that shaped public imagination about the frontier experience and legacy of Western expansionism. Starling's research and comparative analysis provide valuable context for understanding how later Western films paid homage to and diverged from earlier source material as the genre evolved through different eras. Her work serves as a seminal scholarship on tracing the roots of the Western genre before its popularization through motion pictures.

Georgi-Findlay, B. (2017). "Stand It Like a Man": The Performance of Masculinities in Deadwood. Contemporary Masculinities in the UK and the US: Between Bodies and Systems, 121-130.

In this chapter, Jenna Georgi-Findlay utilizes the HBO Western television series Deadwood to examine the complex performances of masculinity portrayed amongst the show's diverse characters. Analyzing Deadwood through a framework of masculinities studies, Georgi-Findlay argues the show subverts dominant concepts of normative manhood through morally ambiguous figures who reject stereotypical heroic masculinity tropes often seen in the Western genre. The chapter closely reads characters like Al Swearengen and Calamity Jane to demonstrate how their gender expressions disrupt societal expectations. As a revisionist Western set in the late 19th century, Deadwood served to deconstruct and challenge standard narratives of pioneering the frontier. Georgi-Findlay's analysis offers valuable insights regarding the series' subtly transgressive depictions of gender. Her application of masculinities theory to a significant text within the Western genre makes an important contribution to scholarship exploring evolving themes of identity across the trajectory of the form.

King, C. S. (2011). Washed in blood: Male sacrifice, trauma, and the cinema. Rutgers University Press. Shane. Directed by George Stevens, Paramount Pictures, 1953.

In this book, Claire Sisco King examines how depictions of male sacrifice, suffering, and trauma have constructed notions of masculinity in cinema. Through close readings of seminal films like Shane, King analyzes how they display men enacting violence or undergoing afflictions that affirm their gender identity. A chapter focuses on Shane, tracing how the film mythologizes its lone gunfighter protagonist through tropes of willing martyrdom. King argues Shane participates in the "death-driven masculinity" that has long pervaded Western films, positioning violence as integral to masculine heroism. Her theoretical framework of linking gender with trauma provides novel insights into the cult of tough, stoic manhood perpetuated through the classical Hollywood Western. Any study of the genre must account for how it has normalized, even glorified, pain and sacrifice as metrics of manhood. King's conceptualization of the "masculine death drive" and its roots in films like Shane is important to understanding evolving themes of gender in Westerns.

Slotkin, R. (1998). Gunfighter Nation: The myth of the frontier in twentieth-century America. University of Oklahoma Press.

In this highly influential book, historian Richard Slotkin examines how myths of the American frontier and the gunfighter came to shape national identity and foreign policy ideals in the 20th century. Through detailed historical analysis spanning novels, dime-store tales, films and political speeches, Slotkin traces how a "savage war" script was constructed around the frontier experience of conquest and violence. He argues Western films played a major role in propagating myths that glorified and politicized the subjugation of Native peoples. The book provides crucial context on how mass media revised and exploited frontier mythology for ideological aims. Slotkin links these myths directly to militarized interventionist foreign policy, showing their cultural resonance and political outcomes. Gunfighter Nation had a transformative impact on the field and remains seminal for its revelations about the ideological uses of Western frontier iconography. Slotkin's critical perspectives are vital to understanding societal forces that influenced the Western genre's popularity and changing depictions of colonialism over time.

Launius, S., & Boyce, G. A. (2021). More than a metaphor: Settler colonialism, frontier logic, and the continuities of racialized dispossession in a southwest US city. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 111(1), 157-174.

In this peer-reviewed journal article, Launius and Boyce analyze how settler colonial "frontier logics" of dispossession continue to shape racialized urban planning decisions in present-day Albuquerque, New Mexico. Through a case study approach examining rezoning proposals affecting Native residents, the authors demonstrate how the purported closing of the geographic frontier masks the ongoing processes of Indigenous land and societal marginalization. They contend Western expansionism's "civilizing" narratives live on in the logic driving neoliberal urban development agendas. Launius and Boyce effectively make the case that settler colonialism should be understood as an enduring structure, not a past event. Their interrogation of the material impacts of discursive tropes like "manifest destiny" offers a model for deconstructing how Western genre conventions can obscure the legacies of colonization. This article highlights the continued relevance of Slotkin's theorization of the ideological power wielded by frontier mythology.

Primary Sources

Deadwood. Created by David Milch. HBO, 2004-2006. (TV Western set in late 19th century mining camp, features morally ambiguous characters and graphic violence)

This acclaimed historical television series provides a compelling text for examining revisions to Western genre conventions. Set in the lawless mining camp of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the 1870s, the show eschews idealized frontier mythology. Featuring morally complex characters like Al Swearengan and Seth Bullock, Deadwood portrays the violent realities of frontier life with little glorification. Produced for premium cable, it embraces more graphic depictions of profanity, sex and unlawful violence than network Westerns could allow. Deadwood subverts familiar tropes like the stoic hero through antiheroes whose morality is often ambiguous. The series also takes an unromanticized view of Western expansion, showing its impacts on indigenous peoples and the inclusion of diverse immigrant characters often omitted from prior Westerns. Through its unflinching realism achieved using cinematic techniques more common to films, Deadwood offered a radical revision of the genre for its era. As such, it provides a rich text for analyzing shifts in representations of gender, colonialism, and idealized frontier myth-making within the changing Western form across mediums.

Shane. Directed by George Stevens, Paramount Pictures, 1953. (Iconic Alan Ladd vehicle considered one of the genre's finest, mythologizes lone gunfighter trope)

This seminal Western film, directed by George Stevens, is considered one of the finest examples of the genre. Starring Alan Ladd as the mysterious gunfighter Shane, who wanders into a Wyoming homesteading community, the film helped cement many tropes that became conventions in subsequent Westerns. Shane features beautiful widescreen cinematography that captures the grandeur of the frontier landscape and frames Ladd's character as a stoic, skilled loner. The film mythologizes Shane as the consummate gunslinger through plot devices like his climactic showdown duel that has been endlessly homaged. It also portrays a romanticized vision of pioneering the West. Shane was hugely influential as a model of the hero-centred classical Hollywood Western. However, its idealized views of westward expansion obscure colonial violence against Native peoples. While masterly crafted, examining how Shane shapes perceptions of American history provides an opportunity to critique its role in propagating frontier mythology and ideas of manifest destiny. The film, therefore, offers insights into evolving genre themes and ideologies across eras.