Studies in American Literature (378-0-21)

Topic

Westerns

Instructors

Lauren Michele Jackson

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 223: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

Well over a century after the West was won—or rather, seized—and narratives of the wild, wild West continue to pervade mass media in the U.S. and beyond. Musical artists such as Lil Nas X, Megan Thee Stallion, Orville Peck, and Kasey Musgraves have been credited with ushering in a "yeehaw agenda" return to cowboy aesthetics and Yellowstone, a cable drama with modern-day cowboying and gunslinging is the one of the most watched shows on television. This course is an introduction to the genre of the western as it has appeared throughout literature and visual media from James Fenimore Cooper to Cowboy Bebop. We will begin in the 19th century, when narratives of the West manifested notions of expansion in advance of its reality and helped repair its deepest ideological fissure, slavery, after a war that tore it apart. In the 20th century, we will consider the role of cinema in ushering in visions of the West and invention of the Spaghetti Western (and why we call them that). Lastly, we will turn to contemporary mutations of the western to think about how westerns persist and remain lively to issues of race, sexuality, and the nation.

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area