The Emergence of the American Frontier Hero 1682-1826: Gender, Action, and Emotion (American Literature Readings in the Twenty-First Century)

This book defines the previously unaddressed, early evolution of the American frontier hero in literature and popular culture. Denise MacNeil resituates the literary origins of this hero from the nineteenth century to the seventeenth century by tracing its roots to Mary Rowlandson’s narration of her experiences as a prisoner. This study follows the subsequent evolution through works by Unca Eliza Winkfield, Charles Brockden Brown, James Fenimore Cooper, and the film-maker John Ford and actor John Wayne. This book exposes complex gender and racial roots and clarifies a cultural stereotype that has become one of those most highly coded as white and masculine within American literature and culture.