Return of the Western

Sue Matheson is Full Professor of English at the University College of the North in Manitoba, Canada. Her interests in film, culture, and literature may be found in more than sixty articles published in a wide range of books and scholarly journals. She is the editor of Love in Western Film and Television: Happy Hearts and Lonely Trails, A Fistful of Icons: Essays on Frontier Fixtures of the American Western, Women in the Western and The Good, the Bad and the Ancient: Essays on the Greco-Roman Influence in Westerns. She is the author of The Westerns and War Films of John Ford and The John Ford Encyclopedia.

• FiguresAcknowledgmentsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction: Rethinking the American frontier—Frederick Jackson Turner, Neurasthenia, and the Contemporary Western - Sue Matheson1. “Free to be not important:” Variety and Versatility in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) - Stella HockenhullPART ONE RE-CONSTITUTED—CONTEMPORARY COWBOYS2. “I’ve Grown Old:” Star Embodiment and Aging Masculinity in the Westerns of Kevin Costner and Jeff Bridges - Gaylyn Studlar3. Jesse James: Melancholy Aesthetics at the End of Cowboy Politics - Christopher Minz4. “Next one’s comin’ faster:” The Vigilante Lawman in FX’s Justified (FX, 2010-15) - Brian Brems5. “I aim to show that he’s a man like any other:” Demythologizing Frontier Masculinity in The Proposition (2005) - Christopher J. Olson6. Lords of the Plains: The Conemporary Western and Discourse in Hell or High Water (2016) - Kelly MacPhail7. Baking Soda Buddies: Frontier Friendship/Capitalist Critique in Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow - Sue MathesonPART TWO RE-FASHIONED—21ST-CENTURY FRONTIERSWOMEN8. Deviations from type: the female gaze in a Frontier setting in Ron Howard’s The Missing (2003) - Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris9. Sexual Terrorism, Gender, and Race in The Keeping Room (2014): Revisioning the Revenge WesternFran Pheasant-Kelly10. Subverting Classic Western Codes and Women’s Empowerment in Meek’s Cutoff (2010) - Gilles Menegaldo11. Doing What Westerns Do: Nia DaCosta’s Little Woods (2018) and the Representation of the “New West” - Erin Lee Mock12. Screening Femininities in Deadwood (HBO, 2004-6) - Claire DutriauxPART III. RE-FORMED— THE 21ST-CENTURY FRONTIER13. The (Un)Making of Civilization in the post-2000 Western - Martin Holtz14. The Land and its Relationship to Justice in Longmire (A&E, 2012-14; Netflix, 2015 – 17) - Andrew Howe15. A “Safe Place”: The Western “Home” and its Mutation in Logan (2017) - J. Paul Johnson16. “We have always been posthuman:” Towards Post-Anthropocentric Perspectives in Westworld (HBO, 2016-22) - Katarzyna Nowak-McNiece17. Revelations in the Old West - Cynthia J. Miller18. Postcolonial Discourses of “Hobbyism,” Cultural Appropriation, and Historical Memory in Global Transnational Westerns - Khani Begum19. Westerns in Turkey and the Contemporary Turco-Western: Genre, Gender, and Transnationality in Yahşi Batı (2010) - İlyas Deniz Çınar20. The Western Rides into the Twenty-First Century: A Bibliography - Camille McCutcheonIndex

Interpreting a range of recent Western and Western-adjacent media, Matheson and her contributors see a dark mirror of contemporary America—where old myths are swept away to reveal moral decay and cultural instability. These bold and often provocative essays are sure to spark debate about what the Western means today.