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Revisionism and the Subversive Cowboy in the Classic Western

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Revisionism and the Subversive Cowboy in the Classic Western Revisionism and the Subversive Cowboy in the Classic Western: Challenging the Definitions and Boundaries of the American Western Literary Genre of the 19th and Early 20th Century Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philologischen Fakultät der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg i. Br. vorgelegt von Shane Joseph Willis Frankiewicz aus Grand Junction, Colorado, USA SS 2017 Erstgutachterin: Prof. Dr. Sieglinde Lemke Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hochbruck Vorsitzende/r des Promotionsausschusses der Gemeinsame Kommission der Philologischen und der Philosophischen Fakultät: Prof. Dr. Joachim Grage Datum der Disputation: 11.04.2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would greatly like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Dr. Sieglinde Lemke, whose guidance and support throughout the writing of this dissertation has been vital in its successful completion. Through her grace and kindness, she has given me with the opportunity to further my academic studies, provided me with work while I researched and wrote my dissertation, provided letters of recommendation, and has improved the quality of my scholarly acumen. I owe her much, and would not be where I am without her. I want to also extend my thanks to the guidance and moral support of Professor Dr. Wolfgang Hochbruck, whose advice and additional direction has provided me with insight and clarity into both teaching and the nuances of Academia. I also would like to thank the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität for giving me an encouraging and formative working environment. My experiences here have been warm and happy, and will stay with me always. By extension, I would also like to thank Dr. Gert Fehlner, Nicole Bancher, and Andrea Strothmann for their continued aid and guidance in the bureaucracy of the University, the successful and punctual completion of various documents for both the University and other Institutions, and their general advice and counsel. Though too many to name individually, I would like to also thank the students of my classes. My experiences as a teacher in higher education have shown me a passion for working in the field that I was not aware I had until beginning at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität. It is a passion that I will continue to work with. My gratitude to Dr. Johannes Fehrle’s guidance and friendship in the successful navigation of American Western studies runs deep. His knowledge and experience in the field has been vital to my research and has given me direction for where to turn when I was at a loss. Additionally, I would like to extend a deep gratitude to Dr. Wibke Schniedermann, whose friendship and advice with reading the dissertation has been beneficial for the completion of the dissertation. My thanks as well to Maxi Albrecht, Sissy Bräuer, Ester Gnandt, and Lena Remy-Kovach for their additional support in the writing of my dissertation and friendship. Naturally, I would like to thank my parents, Gary and Jane Frankiewicz, for their support and encouragement in the decisions that I have made with my life and in living abroad. Their loving acceptance has allowed me to grow in new and exciting ways, and I am who I am because of them. I also want to thank my brother and best friend, Adam Frankiewicz, whose almost daily communication and time together has given me psychological comfort and ease. Finally, I want to thank my wife, Cornelia, who will forever be my better half. Her support, love, and encouragement know no bounds, and without her I would be but a shell of a man. She has made all of this doable, and I cannot thank her enough for all that she has done for me and continues to do. Thank you, all of you. I am here because of you. I Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION AND REOPENING THE CLASSIC WESTERN AND THE REVISIONIST WESTERN .................................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.0 Introducing the Western: Revitalizing Studies and Challenging the Revisionist Western Divide .............. 1 1.1.2 The Pre-Western, and the Classic and Revisionist Western: Origins of the Cowboy ...................................... 4 1.2.0 Mythological Ideology in the Western ............................................................................................................ 12 1.2.1 The Other – Marginalized Figures by the White Hegemonic Cowboy for the ‘Stability’ of Society ............ 15 1.3.0 Contemporary Scholarly Studies: Expanding Upon and Filling in the Gaps of Current Research into the Western ....................................................................................................................................................................... 21 1.4.0 My Dissertation in Overview: Defining a New Approach to the Western ................................................... 24 CHAPTER TWO: EXAMINING THE CLASSIC AND REVISIONIST WESTERN, AND THE COWBOY WITHIN ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 28 2.1.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 28 2.2.0 The Classic Western ......................................................................................................................................... 30 2.1.2 The Cowboy: His Origins as Both Imagined and Real................................................................................... 32 2.1.3 The Function of the Cowboy in the Classic Western ..................................................................................... 35 2.1.4 Hegemonic Masculinity in the Cowboy, the Hegemonic Cowboy in the Western ........................................ 37 2.1.5 The ‘Ideal’ Masculinity in the Classic Cowboy Hegemon ............................................................................. 41 2.1.6 The Cowboy as the Ideal Father: Signification and the Construction of a Mythic Figure ............................. 42 2.3.0 Revisionist Westerns ......................................................................................................................................... 45 2.3.1 The Ox-Bow Incident: The ‘Exceptional’ Western of 1940........................................................................... 50 2.3.2 Revisionist Westerns in film: Red River and the Patriarchal Cowboy ........................................................... 57 2.3.3 Red River and the Progressive Generation of Cowboy Usurping the Hegemon ............................................ 61 2.3.4 Revisionism in The Searchers: The Cowboy’s Racism and His Objectification of Women .......................... 65 CHAPTER THREE: CHALLENGES TO THE CLASSIC WESTERN FROM WITHIN: THE SUBVERSIVE COWBOY IN THE CLASSIC WESTERN ................................................................................................................ 75 3.1.0 Challenging the Revisionist Westerns ............................................................................................................. 75 3.2.0 The Virginian – Wister’s Formulation of Eastern and Western Values of Masculinity ............................ 78 3.2.1 The Virginian and Language: the Vocalization of Societal Demands Concerning Masculinity .................... 81 3.2.2 Emotion in The Virginian: the Appeal of Non-Normative Masculinities through the Gentle Treatment of Animals ................................................................................................................................................................... 88 3.2.3 The Unnamed Narrator and the Honeymoon Retreat: Escapism from Heteronormative Masculine Hegemony ................................................................................................................................................................................. 93 3.2.4 Work and Defining Masculinity through Labor in The Virginian .................................................................. 97 3.2.5 The Virginian between Classic and Revisionist Western ............................................................................... 99 II 3.3.0 The Cowboy’s use of Violence Against Oppressive Masculine Hegemony within the Socio-Cultural West: Women and Non-Normative Masculinity in Riders of the Purple Sage ............................................................... 99 3.3.1 Lassiter and Jane: Romance and the ‘Woman Question’ in Establishing a Progressive Western Environment ............................................................................................................................................................................... 102 3.3.2 Domesticity in Riders of the Purple Sage and the Cowboy’s Sentimentalism: Surprise Valley and the Egalitarian Paradise ............................................................................................................................................... 105 3.3.3 Venters and Bess: Virginity and Female Sexual Freedom ........................................................................... 108 3.3.4 Sexuality and Sexual Repression in Riders of the Purple Sage .................................................................... 111 3.4.0 The Classic Western Hero Evolved: Shane and the Transformation of the Cowboy ............................... 115 3.4.1 Work and Non-Normative Relationships in the Classic Western ................................................................
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