"One power of the keyword 'west' is its ability to conflate the geopolitical entity and physical topography currently referred to as 'the American West' with matters of identity, style, and cultural belonging. 'Western-ness' is highly mobile. If the term typically invokes conventional forms of masculinity, a good deal of its social force and moral credibility owes to a suppressed but sustained dialogue with that 'other' West: 'Western civilization.' Together these connotations map flexible investments in both masculine individualism, including 'wild western' bohemianism, and Western civilization's grandest claims. Since the late eighteenth century, Western forms of cultural belonging and style have been mobilized in the United States in defense of nation, home, white supremacy, and empire."
"President Bush's everyday western regionalisms - his retreat to Crawford Ranch, his invocation of the mythical line at the Alamo to separate cowards from heroes in the 'war on terror,' his posting of old-western 'wanted' lists after 9/11 - [have] renarrated 'western' to justify multiple U.S. wars in defense of the values of 'Western civilization.'"
- Krista Comer, "West," Keywords for American Cultural Studies, pp. 238-39, 242
No comments:
Post a Comment