1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910461639603321

Autore

Kollin Susan

Titolo

Captivating Westerns : the Middle East in the American West. / / Susan Kollin

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Lincoln, Nebraska ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Nebraska Press, , 2015

©2015

ISBN

0-8032-8665-1

0-8032-8663-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (294 p.)

Collana

Postwestern Horizons

Disciplina

810.9/3278

Soggetti

American literature - West (U.S.) - History and criticism

Electronic books.

West (U.S.) In literature

Middle East In literature

West (U.S.) In motion pictures

Middle East In motion pictures

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

""Cover ""; ""Title Page ""; ""Copyright Page ""; ""Contents ""; ""List of Illustrations""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Introduction: Transnational Cowboys and the Middle East""; ""1. "I Longed to Be an Arab": The Eastern Originsof the Western""; ""2. From the Moors: The Easts and Wests of Willa Cather""; ""3. On Savagery and Civilization: Buffalo Bill and the East""; ""4. The Persian Peddler and the Egyptian Elixir: Racial Intimacies in Oklahoma!""; ""5. Specters of Loss: Violence and the National Missionin Post- 9/11 Westerns""; ""6. East of the Spaghetti Western: Global Travelsof the Genre""

""Conclusion: Once Upon a Time in the Middle East""""Notes""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index""

Sommario/riassunto

"Captivating Westerns examines the contact and conflict between the United States and the Middle East in the introduction, production, and circulation of the film and literary Western, and the racial politics embedded in the various versions and revisions of the Western genre"



--

"Tracing the transnational influences of what has been known as a uniquely American genre, "the Western," Susan Kollin's Captivating Westerns analyzes key moments in the history of multicultural encounters between the Middle East and the American West. In particular, the book examines how experiences of contact and conflict have played a role in defining the western United States as a crucial American landscape. Kollin interprets the popular Western as a powerful national narrative and presents the cowboy hero as a captivating figure who upholds traditional American notions of freedom and promise, not just in the region but across the globe. Captivating Westerns revisits popular uses of the Western plot and cowboy hero in understanding American global power in the post-9/11 period. Although various attempts to build a case for the war on terror have referenced this quintessential American region, genre, and hero, they have largely overlooked the ways in which these celebrated spaces, icons, and forms, rather than being uniquely American, are instead the result of numerous encounters with and influences from the Middle East. By tracing this history of contact, encounter, and borrowing, this study expands the scope of transnational studies of the cowboy and the Western and in so doing discloses the powerful and productive influence of the Middle East on the American West"--