ENGL 159 Lavender Cowboys: Power and Gender in the American Western

A study of the popular American "Western" in various forms (fiction, film, television) in the first half of the 20th century. We will pay particular attention to the genre's elaborate, sometimes ambivalent, presentation of ideas of "manliness," and to the historical and social contexts in which that presentation developed. We will also spend some time discussing associated issues of race and power. Toward the end of the class, we will examine a few of the Western's transformations in the late 20th and 21st centuries.