Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
2006
Abstract
"To me what is most important is to come to grips with both colonial history and contemporary life," writes Emma LaRocque in her essay, "When the 'Wild West' Is Me," on de-mythologizing the cowboys and Indians of popular culture. What makes this new collection fresh is its emphasis on connections between past and present communities in the Canadian West. Eighteen thought-provoking articles are organized in three parts: "Images of the West," "Challenging Western History and Frontier Myth-Making," and "New Frontiers." A scholarly introduction and editorial analyses between the various sections bind the articles to key themes of community building and an always-spinning web of human connection. This makes the significance of the collection greater than most of the articles would be alone. Authors from the disciplines of history, English, musicology, folklore, art history, architectural history, and sociology focus on fluidity in time and space. The editors perceptively note that "frontier" has suffered from "both vague and overly precise usage of the word" and explain that the concept informs this collection for practical reasons of "habit and history" and so old usages can be challenged. Some essays also touch on "metropolitanism" which the editors nudge usefully into a global framework.
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 26:3 (Summer 2006). Copyright © 2006 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.