Frontiers of Identity: Reclamation of Black Cowboys and Cowgirls in the Western Genre through &quot;The Harder they Fall&quot; and  &quot;Concrete Cowboy&quot;

In this thesis I investigate how contemporary Western films reshape cultural memory of the American frontier by foregrounding Black cowboy and cowgirl identities that have long been marginalized within the genre. Through a comparative analysis of The Harder They Fall (Samuel, 2021) and Concrete Cowboy (Staub, 2020), I examine how these films function as cinematic interventions in the Western’s racialized and gendered memory system. Drawing on cultural memory theory, intersectionality, and Black feminist film criticism, I argue that these films do not merely diversify representation but actively challenge the ideological foundations of the Western as a national myth centered on white masculinity. Using close reading and historical contextualization, the analysis demonstrates how both films mobilize counter- memory by exposing mechanisms of erasure and rearticulating the frontier as a space of Black presence, continuity, and belonging. Particular emphasis is placed on the...Show moreIn this thesis I investigate how contemporary Western films reshape cultural memory of the American frontier by foregrounding Black cowboy and cowgirl identities that have long been marginalized within the genre. Through a comparative analysis of The Harder They Fall (Samuel, 2021) and Concrete Cowboy (Staub, 2020), I examine how these films function as cinematic interventions in the Western’s racialized and gendered memory system. Drawing on cultural memory theory, intersectionality, and Black feminist film criticism, I argue that these films do not merely diversify representation but actively challenge the ideological foundations of the Western as a national myth centered on white masculinity. Using close reading and historical contextualization, the analysis demonstrates how both films mobilize counter- memory by exposing mechanisms of erasure and rearticulating the frontier as a space of Black presence, continuity, and belonging. Particular emphasis is placed on the representation of Black women, whose historical and cinematic invisibility constitutes a form of double erasure at the intersection of race and gender. By analyzing narrative structure, visual strategies, and spatial configurations, in this thesis I show how contemporary, Black-centered Westerns reframe violence, community, and identity, transforming the frontier from a site of conquest into a relational and contested cultural space. In doing so, the research contributes to scholarship on the Western genre and cultural memory by positioning contemporary film as a critical site where the meanings of the American past are actively renegotiated.Show less

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Frontiers of Identity: Reclamation of Black Cowboys and Cowgirls in the Western Genre through "The Harder they Fall" and "Concrete Cowboy"