| Title | The (wild) subject of the american frontier in john williams’ “butcher’s crossing” / |
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| Translation of Title | Laukinių Vakarų reikšmė(s) Johno Williamso romane „Butcher's Crossing“. |
| Authors | Kudaba, Lukas |
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| Pages | 31 |
| Keywords [eng] | Western, Vesternas, Cowboy, kaubojus, the Frontier, paribys, wilderness, laukinė gamta, identity, tapatybė, tapatumas, self-discovery, savęs paieška, Butcher's Crossing, John Edward Williams, Džonas Edvardas Viljamsas, John Williams, Džonas Viljamsas |
| Abstract [eng] | The American Western is one of the most prominent and evocative genres and its central figure of the cowboy has had cultural significance throughout the world ever since the 19th century. This MA paper analyzes the role the American Frontier and the image of the cowboy plays in the construction of personal and national identity in John Williams’ Butcher’s Crossing. To carry out this analysis, I rely on William Cronon’s reconceptualization of humanity as part of the natural world and the natural world as in part a cultural construct. Furthermore, I use Will Wright’s concept of the cowboy as a representation of the market individualism that underlies the creation of the United States of America. By looking at the interplay between the characters and the wilderness Frontier they are in, I analyze how one constitutes the other and vice versa. In this novel the journey into the American Frontier as a quest to discover self-identity raises questions about the fundamental ideas that we ascribe to the American West. |
| Dissertation Institution | Vilniaus universitetas. |
| Type | Master thesis |
| Language | English |
| Publication date | 2025 |