Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Degeneration Of Settler Colonialism In Contemporary Cinematic Depictions Of The U.S. West: Introduction, M. Elise Marubbio, Marek Paryż, Matthew Carter

Faculty Authored Articles

The settler’s situation is underpinned by the fear of having been caught in a process of endless transition, hence the determination to define the parameters of collective sovereignty and to establish a satisfactory existential basis. The sense of uncertainty that underlies the settler’s situation accounts for the necessity of developing power structures that sustain the settler collective’s striving to complete its design, and this triggers a range of conflicts. Repeatedly addressing the eponymous region’s legacy of settler colonialism, film depictions of the American West re-inscribe oppression of racial minorities, sexual abuse, and class exploitation in order to validate the foundational …