The emergence of the American frontier hero, 1682-1826 : gender, action, and emotion / Denise Mary MacNeil.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacNeil, Denise Mary.

Series:

American literature readings in the 21st century

American literature readings in the twenty-first century

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--West (U.S.)--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--History and criticism.

Western stories--History and criticism.

Western stories.

Western films--History and criticism.

Western films.

Frontier and pioneer life in literature.

Frontier and pioneer life in motion pictures.

West (U.S.)--In literature.

West (U.S.).

West (U.S.)--In motion pictures.

West (U.S.)--In popular culture.

Physical Description:

ix, 226 pages ; 18 cm.

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Summary:

This book defines the previously unaddressed early evolution of the American frontier hero in literature and popular culture. Denise Mary MacNeil resituates the literary origins of this hero from the nineteenth century to the seventeenth century by tracing its roots to Mary Rowlandson's narration of her experiences as a prisoner. This study follows the subsequent evolution through works by Unca Eliza Winkfield, Charles Brockden Brown, James Fenimore Cooper, film-maker John Ford, and actor John Wayne. This book exposes complex gender and racial roots and clarifies a cultural stereotype that has become one of those most highly coded as white and masculine within American literature and culture.

Contents:

1 The American Frontier Hero in Mary Rowlandson's Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration 1

2 Mythological Roots of the American Frontier Hero 15

3 Mary Rowlandson, Puritan Hero 39

4 Mothering the Adamic Hero 63

5 Transcending Gendered English American Social Positions: Gender and Racial Multiplicity in The Female American; or, the Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield 83

6 Dancing between Ferocity and Delicacy in Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker by Charles Brockden Brown 101

7 Reconstituting the American Frontier Hero through James Fenimore Cooper's Natty Bumppo in The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 133

8 Mary Rowlandson in Jeans: The John Ford/John Wayne Film The Searchers and the Mary Rowlandson Archetype 157

Figure 8.1 Relationship of the American Frontier Hero to the "Threshold of Adventure" and the Adventure Cycle (Campbell 245-246) 159.

ISBN:

9780230621503

0230621503

OCLC:

326551502