The Concept of Place in the American West

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Published: Jun 10, 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.47743/lincu-2019-1-0134
Keywords:
Western Frontier patriotic landscape cowboys and Indians cultural region

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Irina Chirica
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania

Abstract

This paper surveys the most significant ways in which the American West has been viewed as a place and region. Starting with Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase of 1803, we follow the expansion of the West as a region throughout American history. Jefferson worked out a plan which involved the creation of territories which later became states, following a certain procedure. Inside the larger West, there are many Wests: the prairie states of the Midwest (also called the “Bread Basket” of America), the Rocky Mountain states, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and California. We analyze the myths and images associated with the west in American culture, and the influence of Frederick Jackson Turner’s essay dedicated to “the Frontier”. We discuss the New Historicism approach and the way in which it criticizes Tuner. Then we discuss the reflection of the West in the visual arts (the major landscape painters and in the work of the western movie director John Ford). We bring arguments to support the idea that the West is a construct of human experience and a cultural concept, more than a “place”.

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How to Cite
Chirica, I. “The Concept of Place in the American West”. Linguaculture, vol. 10, no. 1, June 2019, pp. 46-59, doi:10.47743/lincu-2019-1-0134.
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Vol. 10 No. 1 (2019)
Section
Articles
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Author Biography

Irina Chirica, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania

Irina Chirica is a senior lecturer at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, Romania. She obtained her PhD in 2000, with a dissertation on American literature – “Aspects of Time in 20th Century American Novels”. She was the recipient of nine scholarships abroad, of which the most important one was the Fulbright Senior Scholarship to study American Regionalism at the University of Maine, USA, in 2008. Specialized in American Studies, she teaches American Cultural Studies, American History, Ethnicity and the History of American Art at BA and MA levels. Her current research projects explore the intersection of literature and culture. She has published three books and six textbooks, as well as various articles in her areas of interest in Romania.

References

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