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Violence and Open Spaces

The Subversion of Boundaries and the Transformation of the Western Genre

Herausgeber: Mueller, Stefanie | Buschendorf, Christa | Sarkowsky, Katja

American Studies – A Monograph Series, Bd. 277

2017

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Abstract

The classic Western film is characterized by the tension of open and enclosed spaces as well as by the lone hero’s exposure to the vastness of both tempting and dangerous spaces. John Ford’s cinematography in particular has contributed to a specific spatial iconography that is premised on this tension and that survives, albeit transformed, in contemporary (Neo-) Western films. While scholars of the Western genre have long acknowledged a connection between space and violence – beginning with Frederick Jackson Turner’s famous description of the Western frontier – the essays in this collection provide a fresh perspective. Taking Norbert Elias’ ‘The Civilizing Process’ (1939) and its insights into the interdependence between habitus formation, spatial reorganization and the emergence of a state monopoly of violence as their point of departure, they analyze contemporary visions of open and bounded spaces as well as of the liminal spaces between them in recent films and TV shows.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Zwischenüberschrift Seite Aktion Preis
Cover C
Title Page 3
Copyright 4
Table of Contents 5
CHRISTA BUSCHENDORF, STEFANIE MUELLER, KATJA SARKOWSKY: Violence and Open Spaces: The Subversion of Boundaries and the Transformation of the Western Genre 7
BRIGITTE GEORGI-FINDLAY: Open Spaces, Towns, and Middle Grounds: Symbolic Maps in the Western 31
WIBKE SCHNIEDERMANN: “South is not ‘down’ any more than North is ‘up’”: Jumping Scales in ‚True Grit‘ 61
JAN D. KUCHARZEWSKI: “Somewhere out there is a true and living prophet of destruction”: Chaotic Cartographies and Eroding Boundaries in Ethan and Joel Coen’s No Country for ‚Old Men‘ 77
MARTIN HOLTZ: The Western in Times of War: ‚Open Range‘ and ‚Seraphim Falls‘ as Post-9/11 Films 93
MIRIAM STRUBE: Blacks Go West: The Rise of the African American Cowboy 107
LAURA BIEGER: Cowboys in Candyland: Quentin Tarantino’s ‚Django Unchained‘ and the Southern Frontier 135
IRIS-AYA LAEMMERHIRT: “Kill white people and get paid for it? What’s not to like?”: Violence and Space in Quentin Tarantino’s ‚Django Unchained‘ 151
STEFANIE MUELLER: National and Economic Incorporation in HBO’s ‚Deadwood‘ 167
JULIA LEYDA: ‚Breaking Bad‘: A Recessionary Western 187
Backcover 204