Originally I set the word count at 250, but that seems unrealistically brief, so I am suggesting a word count of 350 (but you can go up to 500) instead. If you feel like you can write substantively within the 250 word count, you can still do that. As a reminder, drafts are due before midnight on May 1 (though if you attend Wednesday afternoon’s lecture, you can submit it on May 2). If you prefer to simply submit a final draft without opportunity for revision, you can submit it on May 5.
Here are the guidelines:
Building on your group presentation and discussion, write a brief reflective essay (circa 350 words) that explores how the revisionist Western film your group examined engages with the American frontier origin story.
Your essay should address the following:
- How does your film revise, challenge, or reframe traditional Western tropes? Consider how it portrays key elements like law and order, violence, heroism, race, gender, landscape, or settler-indigenous relations.
- What does your film suggest about the malleability or durability of the frontier myth? In what ways does it adapt, critique, or uphold the narrative of the American West as a space of rugged individualism, moral clarity, or national becoming?
- More broadly, what might this film tell us about national myths or origin stories in general? What kinds of cultural work do such stories do, and how do they shift across historical moments?
This is not a plot summary. Instead, refer to specific scenes or motifs from the film as evidence to support your claims. Focus on what your film reveals about how nations narrate their beginnings — and how those beginnings can be reimagined or unsettled.
While part of the challenge is to be concise and precise in your writing, you may write up to 500 words if you feel you need the space.
