Q&A: Stan Corkin

Stan Corkin’s

Cowboys as Cold Warriors: The Western and U.S. History

analyzes 16 Hollywood Westerns released during the genre’s glory days (1946-1962). His theory is that Cold War Westerns were a means by which American audiences learned to “adjust to new concepts of national definition.” Here he discusses his thesis and the process of writing the book.

Q:

Let’s start with a mundane question. How does an English professor become interested in cowboys?

A:

I am an English professor, but my doctorate is in American Studies, and my interests include film and U.S. culture. I was born in 1953 and grew up watching, with my dad, westerns on television --Rin Tin Tin, Bonanza, the Hopalong Cassidy serials, Rawhide, Wagon Train. They entertained me, but even then my fascination with the genre, and I’m pretty sure this is true for many people, was way beyond the fleeting experience of being entertained.

Q:

In what ways do you believe these films encouraged Americans to redefine themselves and the country?

A:

Westerns always speak to the various systems associated with the United States--law, morality, education, economics--taking hold in the contiguous lands to the west. These films evoked an easy analogy, steeped in national myth, which provided viewers with a means of considering the unprecedented role of the United States as a focal power in the world.

Q:

You describe your work as being “enabled” by revisionist history. Did you make the link between that approach and the films gradually, or was it the result of some sudden moment of recognition?

A:

I was taking a break from another writing project and thought that writing about westerns would be fun and interesting, so I presented a conference paper about Howard Hawks’ Red River. I had been reading Patricia Limerick’s great book, The Legacy of Conquest, as part of my work on Willa Cather’s western novels. I found that Limerick’s refashioning of western history allowed me to see that film as I, and apparently no other, cultural historian had seen it before.

Q:

One of the chapters that might interest readers is the second in which you address the issue of the feminine and mothering in Westerns. What functions do you see females performing in these films?

A:

Mostly westerns are a male-dominated genre. The films you ask about--Duel in the Sun, Pursued, Fort Apache--all have central characters who are women. To some degree, this fact rewrites the emphases of the genre. The films I talk about in that chapter redefine territorial conquest in a variety of ways that connect with period cultural definitions of “the feminine.” These include a kind of 1940s and 1950s popular Freudianism that makes the male urge to violence a matter of bad mothering. They also introduce a view of “soft imperialism,” showing the civilizing mission as the core of the imperial impulse and asserting the desirability of coercion over violent conquest.

Q:

How about your children? You say they never developed a taste for John Wayne, but if popular culture is as influential as you contend, are you working on anything new that might appeal to them?

A:

My son is deeply addicted to video games, particularly sports video games. My daughter’s guilty pleasure is reality TV, the MTV version in particular. I don’t anticipate writing about either subject, but you never know.