Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West
between the years of 1860 and 1900. Well-known writers of Western fiction
include Zane Grey from the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour from the mid
20th century. The genre peaked around the early 1960s, largely due to the
popularity of televised Westerns such as Bonanza. Readership began to drop
off in the mid- to late 1970s and has reached a new low in the 2000s. Most
book stores, outside of a few Western states, only carry a small number of
Western fiction books.
Themes
The Western genre, particularly in films, often portrays the conquest of the
wilderness and the quest to dominate nature in the name of civilization or
the taking of the territorial rights of the original inhabitants of the frontier. (
native Americans) The Western depicts a society organized around codes of
honor and personal, direct or private justice (such as the feud[1]), rather than
any rationalistic, abstract law, in which persons have no social order larger
than their immediate peers, family, or perhaps themselves alone. The
popular perception of the Western[ is a story that centers on the life of a
semi-nomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter.
In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the literary descendants
of the knight errant which stood at the center of an earlier extensive genre.
Like the cowboy or gunfighter of the Western, the knight errant of the earlier
European tales and poetry was wandering from place to place on his horse,
fighting villains of various kinds and bound to no fixed social structures but
only to his own innate code of honor. And like knights errant, the heroes of
Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress.
The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple
morality tales, although some notable examples (e.g. the later Westerns of
John Ford or Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven) are more morally ambiguous.
Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the
action in an arid, desolate landscape. Specific settings include isolated forts,
ranches and homesteads; the Native American village; or the small frontier
town with its saloon, general store, livery stable and jailhouse. Apart from
the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the "Wild
West": it is the place to go for music (raucous piano playing), girls (often
prostitutes), gambling (draw poker or five card stud), drinking (beer or
whiskey), brawling and shooting. In some Westerns, where "civilization"
has arrived, the town has a church and a school; in others, where frontier
rules still hold sway, it is, as Sergio Leone said, "where life has no value".
Literary forms that share similar themes include the gaucho literature of
Argentina and tales of the European settlement of the Australian
Outback.Tom Mix in Mr. Logan,
U.S.A., c. 1919
The Western is a fiction genre seen in film, television, radio, literature,
painting and other visual arts.
Westerns often portray how primitive and obsolete ways of life confronted
modern technological or social changes. This may be depicted by showing
conflict between natives and settlers or U.S. Cavalry or between sheep and
cattle farmers, or by showing ranchers being threatened by the onset of the
Industrial Revolution. American Westerns of the 1940s and 1950s
emphasize the values of honor and sacrifice. Westerns from the 1960s and
1970s often have more pessimistic view, glorifying a rebellious anti-hero
and highlighting the cynicism, brutality and inequality of the American
West. Despite being tightly associated with a specific time and place in
American history, these themes have allowed Westerns to be produced and
enjoyed across the world.
Westerns usually have certain codes: for example, a hero wears a white hat,
while the villain wears a black hat; when more than one cowboy faces the
other with no one in between them, there will be a shootout; ranchers and
mountain men don't talk to people and live alone, while townsfolk are family
and community-minded; etc. All Western films can be read as a series of
codes and the variations on those codes.
One of the results of genre studies is that some have argued that "Westerns"
need not take place in the American West or even in the 19th century, as the
codes can be found in other types of films. For example, a very typical
Western plot is that an eastern lawman heads west, where he matches wits
and trades bullets with a gang of outlaws and thugs, and is aided by a local
lawman who is well-meaning but largely ineffective until a critical moment
when he redeems himself by saving the hero's life. This description can be
used to describe any number of Westerns, but also the action film Die Hard.
Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is another frequently cited examples of a
film that does not take place in the American West but has many themes and
characteristics common to Westerns. Likewise, films set in the old American
West may not necessarily be considered "Westerns."
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Sources:
1. ^ [1]
2. ^ this entire section largely summarizes the analysis of Kim Newman:
Wild West Movies
3. ^ Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and
Myth, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1950.
4. ^ Peter Cowie, see below
5. ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (June 26, 1996). "Acid Western: Dead Man".
"Chicago Reader".
http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0696/06286.html.
6. ^ Patrick Crogan. "Translating Kurosawa." Senses of Cinema.
7. ^ Robert Silva. "Not From 'Round Here... Cowboys Who Pop Up
Outside the Old West." Future of the Classic.
8. ^ Kisseloff, J. (editor) The Box: An Oral History of Television
* Cowie, Peter, John Ford and the American West, Harry Abrams Inc.,
New York, 2004 ISBN 0810949768
* Newman, Kim, Wild West Movies, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 1990
* Yarbrough, Tinsley, "Those Great Western Movie Locations," 2008,
thosegreatwesternmovielocations.com
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