Conversation group with d.a.i. teacher Scott Stelle.Join us in a lively, spirited exploration of the historic transformation of the American Western, as the genre shifted from celebration to critique. Revisionist Westerns emerged in the shadow of Vietnam, the civil rights movement, and increasing skepticism toward institutional authority and national mythmaking, recasting the frontier not as destiny but as violence. Revisionist Westerns take the myths of cowboys, conquest, and “civilization” and turn them inside out. Violence is no longer just a climactic gunfight or dramatic rupture – it becomes the structure holding the world together, shapingtowns, laws, and survival itself, long before any showdown ever takes place. 2.10.: E.L. Doctorow, Welcome to Hard Times (1960: film, 1967) 6.11.: Thomas Berger, Little Big Man (1964: novel, 1970) 4.12.: Theodore Victor Olsen, Arrow in the Sun (1970: Film: Soldier Blue)