Culture and Media: The Western and Beyond - Detailseite

Perhaps no other genre symbolizes the "old" America, the America of the WASP, the redneck, the economy of conquest and assimilation as much as the Western. In this class we will discuss the mythology of the Western and its historical development from early to classical to revisionist movies and on to today’s revival (e.g. Coen-Brothers, Tarantino). Topics for discussion will be the myth of the West, the psychology of the Western, the Western as formula fiction, the topographies of the Western, the times of the Western, the Western and its ethnic Other, the Western and the heterosexual matrix (masculinities, femininities …). The theoretical impulses will be supplied by John Cawelti, Richard Slotkin, Gilles Deleuze, Elisabeth Bronfen and others. We will discuss how we can make sure everybody has access to the movies.

The Moodle Key will be announced through Agnes (check the email with which you registered in Agnes).

There are two good books to start—unfortunately they are both hard to get in Germany. Don't buy them for 30 euros, but if you can get them to a reasonable prize they are: David Lusted, The Western, Longman, 2003 and Gregg Rickman (ed.), The Western Reader, Limelight, 2004.

“Spezielle Arbeitsleistungen” (within the seminar): 1) write a summary of one meeting together with another student (or two…). 2) give input to one aspect from a movie.

For the entire module 7 or 10 (MAP) BA Amerikanistik students have to write a term paper (10 pages) in one of the seminars from the module. Gender Studies students please talk to me.

Registration through Agnes.