Contemporary Cowboys : Reimagining an American Archetype in Popular Culture

This volume offers new critical insights into the increasingly mythological figure of the American cowboy and “The West” in the 21st century while seeking to explain how these components of American identity continue to fit into our shared culture narrative. Contemporary Cowboys: Reimagining an American Archetype in Popular Culture expands and develops an understanding of recent cultural shifts in representations of the American cowboy and “the West” as vital components of American identity and values. The chapters in this book examine they ways in which twenty-first century representations have updated the figure of the cowboy, considering not only traditionally analyzed sources, such as television, film, and literature, but also less studied areas such as comics, and music. The contributors probe the cowboy archetype and western mythology with critical theory, feminist critiques, philosophy, history, cultural analysis, and more. Cover Contents Preface Acknowledgments The Gaucho in a Globalized World The Philosophy of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian Horse Sense “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” Can You Hear Me? “I Can’t Go Back” “They Forgot to Put in the Quit” Slow Cowboys and New Men Rewriting the Western Myth The Lone Wolf and the Wild West Deadwood’s Return to Authenticity Semiotic Landscapes and Fallen Heroes Graphic Evolutions Index About the Editor and Contributors