Reading the West Ne Essays on the Literature of the American West [Paperback]

A 1996 collection of essays exploring western American literature and the West in the American imagination.The American West of myth and legend has always exerted a strong hold on the popular imagination. These critical essays by writers, independent scholars, and critics on the literature of the American West showcase new ways of reading and understanding western writing.The American West of myth and legend has always exerted a strong hold on the popular imagination. These critical essays by writers, independent scholars, and critics on the literature of the American West showcase new ways of reading and understanding western writing.The American West of myth and legend has always exerted a strong hold on the popular imagination, and Reading the West examines the bases of that fascination. These critical essays by writers, independent scholars, and critics on the literature of the American West showcase new ways of reading and understanding western writing. This volume helps enrich our understanding of a distinguished body of literary work that has sometimes been unjustly ignored. It deals not only with literature but also with the changing conception of the West in the American imagination.Introduction Michael Kowalewski; Part I. Nature and Place in Western Writing: 1. Region, power, place William W. Bevis; 2. Burros and Mustangs: literary evolutionism and the wilderness west David Rains Wallace; Part II. Reimagining the American Frontier: 3.The Literature of loneliness: understanding the letters and diaries of the American West Shannon Applegate; 4. Quoting the wicked wit of the West: Frontier reportage and Western vernacular Michael Kowalewski; 5. Bierstadt's settings, Harte's plots Lee Mitchell; Part III. Modern Western Revisions: 6. Sentimentalism in the American Southwest: John C. Van Dyke, Mary Austin and Edward Abbey Peter Wild; 7. Revisionist Western classics Thomas J. Lyon; 8. Molly's truthtelling, or Jean Stafford rewrites the Western Susan J. Rosowski; l