Outriders : rodeo at the fringes of the American West / Rebecca Scofield.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scofield, Rebecca, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rodeos--Social aspects--West (U.S.)--History--20th century.

Rodeos.

West (U.S.)--Social conditions--20th century.

West (U.S.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 252 pages)

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2019]

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

"This book examines how (and why) rodeo has provided diverse communities ways in which they can prove themselves as real Americans, real men, and real heroes, often through the enactment of ever-shifting concepts like authenticity, tradition, and heritage. The author analyzes how the space of the rodeo arena has exposed fractures in the narrative of the cowboy over the twentieth century, focusing particularly on the experiences of non-normative cowboys and cowgirls to demonstrate how people stripped of their place in a collectively imagined Western past have both challenged and reinforced the cowboy as an icon of American authenticity. The case studies include female bronc-riders in the 1910s and 1920s, convict cowboys in the mid-twentieth century, all-black rodeos in the 1960s and 1970s, and gay rodeoers in the late century. Cast out of popular Western mythology and pushed to the fringes in everyday life, these people found belonging and meaning at the rodeo, staking a claim to national inclusion through regional performance. Yet, alongside their challenges to the restrictive definition of the cowboy, they also contributed to the persistent idea of an authentic Western identity"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Rodeo and the outriders of history

Coiffeuse to cowgirl : pioneering and the performance of Western womanhood

Restorative brutality : violence and social salvation at the Texas Prison Rodeo

History unedited : black rodeo, progress, and the performance of heritage

Camp and the cowboy : the serious fun of gay rodeo

Conclusion: Performance and embodied epistemologies.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780295746050

029574605X