Call for Essay Submissions on Love in Film and Television Westerns

full name / name of organization: 
Sue Matheson
contact email: 

Call for submissions for an edited collection requested by Palgrave Macmillan
Submissions for a collection of essays tentatively titled Cowboy Love: Lonely Hearts and Happy Trails in Western Film and Television
Long before the release of Brokeback Mountain (2005), Cowboy Love was a complicated, and often conflicted, subject in Western film. Cowboys who would never run from a fight often run from love, and for good reason. Transgressive and titillating, love is one of the most hazardous of all frontier activities in the West. Its presence and absence establish and destabilize gender norms, raising social, political, moral and ethical questions. Simultaneously affirming archetypes of manliness and womanhood and challenging notions of American machismo, the narrative of frontier romance has contributed to the lasting popularity of the cowboy and the endurance of the Western as a genre.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
• Classic cowboy couples
• Saddle Pals
• Interracial Romance
• John Wayne's Women
• Love and the Lawman
• Outlaw Love
• Love and the Cavalryman
• Courtship, Marriage and Domestication
• Cowgirls Who Get Their Men
• The Saloongirl in Love
• Cowboy Love Eurostyle

Proposals for critical essays that approach the subject of Cowboy Love from a variety of methodological approaches are welcomed. Abstracts of 250-500 word abstract are due by March 15, 2011. The deadline for 5000-7000 word essays from accepted abstracts will be August 31, 2011.
Please send all inquiries and proposals to Sue Matheson (smatheson@ucn.ca)