The Frontier Myth is another phrase to define the Wild West frontier. This notion is so important in the American culture that we can consider it as a funding myth in the american folklore. What is the Frontier? What does it represent?
The word "frontier" was used to define the unsettled land in the west of America in the XIXth century. At this time, much efforts were made to conquest this vast zone inhabited by the Natives. The persons who decided to explore this zone were called the frontiersmen. They were cowboys, ranchers or gold miners and all aspired to become rich. Some of those people became heroes in the American cultures and we can say that the Frontier Myth is one of the first manifestations of the American Dream.
Thèmes proches
• Westward Expansionism
• The Myth of the Frontier
• The Heroes of the West: cow-boys, native Americans, Lewis & Clark
• Manifest Destiny
Documents à lire ou voir
• ‘The Frontier in American History’, F. J. Turner
• Dances with Wolves (video)
• The Myth of the Cowboy (video)
• American Progress : painting by John Gast (1872)
• Manifest Destiny
• The Way West, A. B. Gurthrie J.
• The Conquest of the West : visual analysis
• The fabric of America (audio track)
