Western. Genre und Geschichte
Between 1930 and 1960 the Western was the most popular genre in Hollywood cinema. The USA, as the emerging superpower, staged
showdowns between heroes and villains in stories of archetypal clarity. The frontier myth was reflected in the global assertion
of American hegemony.
In the German-language world, Westerns have been described mostly from the perspective of fans, with the political and historical
dimensions being largely ignored. The book, edited by film critic and scholar Bert Rebhandl, assembles a selection of important
texts from Anglo-Saxon and French debates on the topic for the first time in German translation, and proves in the process
that this genre can by no means be consigned to the past.
The book includes essays by André Bazin, Raymond Bellour, Pam Cook, Sean Cubitt, Christopher Frayling, André Glucksman, Brian
Henderson, Jim Kitses, Jacques Rancière, Bert Rebhandl, Jean-Louis Rieupeyrout, Scott Simmon, Richard Slotkin and Robert Warshow.
Western. Genre und Geschichte
Edited by Bert Rebhandl
KINO Series, Vol. 5
Zsolnay-Verlag, Vienna 2007. 368 pages. In German.
