CIN270Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Frontier Thesis
11 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017
CIN270Y1
CLASS 5
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
- This film is a Western, although not a traditional one
Somewhat hedonistic
Aligned with the counterculture, in a different way from Easy Rider (more so
maybe)
- What is it about the Western in the 1970’s (when the genre is already losing its
plausibility, doesn’t have any belief in itself), that made people turn so easily to it?
National Narratives
- Western establishes a site for national narratives
- These are dominant stories and cultural histories
- They provide a perspective on the past by organizing these various elements (organize a
sense of the past)
- Social forms
- Collective understanding
- Cultural traumas
- They shape National Identity
National Fantasy
- Forms cultural subjectivity
- Images, stories, monuments, sites…
- Traditional icons, heroes, rituals…
- Circulate through both personal and collective consciousness
- “the nation” = a story of origins
- its destiny seems inevitable
- What is one’s place in a nation?
The Western
- America’s “national narrative”
- McCabe and Mrs. Miller is a mercantile journey into the West and into the wilderness
(they are very clear about this - people are looking to make money and everyone wants to
get rich)
Reclaim and convert/re-civilize “savagery”
Effort to civilize the wilderness
This movement to take over encompasses various quests…land, liberty, wealth,
redemption
Frontier = democracy (settling on the Frontier recreates the idea/establishment of
American democracy)
A very selective version of American history; through this narrativizing, certain
details are selected and many others are left out
Narrativizing the “West”
- Roosevelt Winning of the West
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
This film is a western, although not a traditional one. Aligned with the counterculture, in a different way from easy rider (more so maybe) Western establishes a site for national narratives. These are dominant stories and cultural histories. They provide a perspective on the past by organizing these various elements (organize a sense of the past) Circulate through both personal and collective consciousness. The nation = a story of origins its destiny seems inevitable. Mccabe and mrs. miller is a mercantile journey into the west and into the wilderness (they are very clear about this - people are looking to make money and everyone wants to get rich) This movement to take over encompasses various quests land, liberty, wealth, redemption. Frontier = democracy (settling on the frontier recreates the idea/establishment of. A very selective version of american history; through this narrativizing, certain details are selected and many others are left out.
