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Cowboys, Angels, and Demons: American Exceptionalism and the Frontier Myth in the CW's Supernatural
Abstract
The CW network series Supernatural (2005–) draws its text from the horror and fantasy genres as well as religious mythology. Concurrently, it transmits a core “American” mythos. As its protagonists keep watch along a supernatural frontier and eradicate threats to the American way of life, this program both reinforces and alters aspects of the frontier myth and the myth of American exceptionalism by depicting its main characters as representations of America writ large whose mission has grown from an appointment by God to being equals to God. In this manner, Supernatural forwards a new American exceptionalism through the notion that America is exceptional because it is not just divinely appointed by God, but is divine itself.
... Dorsey (2013) argues that "the Frontier Myth" functions as one of "the most influential" of America's myths (p. 431), and other scholars concur about the Frontier Myth's import (Dorsey, 1995(Dorsey, , 1996Jones, 2011;McMullen, 1996;Moore, 1991;Rushing, 1986;Stuckey, 2011;Valenzano & Engstrom, 2014). ...
... This intent was realized by carefully framing and editing stories of its history portraying Colt as the maker of the most authentic American firearms, particularly suited to cowboys as the iconic guardians of the American frontier. In this way, Colt has indelibly linked itself to the myth of American excep- tionalism (Walt 2011) engendered in the process of taming the Western frontier (Valenzano and engstrom 2014). This myth was sustained by its successive military contracts through which the company made its products famously known to generations of soldiers, thus associating its image with America's past military victories (Smith 2014). ...
The rugged and individualistic reputation of Samuel Colt and the Colt Company is the stuff of legend in the American psyche. Largely constructed from themes aligned with American exceptionalism and the taming of the Western frontier, this firearm maker built a powerful and pervasive image. In this study, we examine how the Colt Company used rhetorical history in an agentic, proactive way to appropriate history and tradition for strategic purposes. Specifically, we apply a genealogical method to analyze the ways that rhetorical history was used by Colt in order to augment our understanding of rhetorical history and its utilization as a competitive image-enhancing practice.
The TV show Supernatural (2005–2020) features itinerant brothers Sam and Dean Winchester battling pagan gods from ancient Greco-Roman mythology who pose a threat to the present-day American way of life. The show utilizes two key concepts to define perils to American culture and values: the frontier myth and the myth of American exceptionalism. In a remote town in Alaska (i.e., the frontier), the brothers encounter the Roman goddess Fortuna, who reveals to the Winchesters how they can protect America. Fortuna’s appearance signifies a shift in how the show’s heroes, Sam and Dean, see themselves: they are forced to experience the despair everyday Americans feel when their luck runs out. A critical analysis of several key episodes will demonstrate that as the series advances, the focus on the brothers’ erasure of pagan threats to America is replaced by a critique of monotheistic religion, a reexamination of the myth of American exceptionalism, and social commentary on the problems with a culture based on consumerism.
Supernatural is a TV series created in 2005 that draws inspiration from urban legends, folklore and mythological tales to tell the journey of two brothers who hunt monsters, ghosts and creatures from the underworld in an apocalyptic scenario. This article intends to explore Supernatural as a reflection of/on the present time, its main concerns and practices. First, it analyzes the show as part of a post-9/11 culture that is deeply affected by the events of 2001 and the underlying sense of terror. Even though the show privileges the horror genre as a framework to deal with 9/11-ensued fears and anxieties, it also brings into play many other genres that blur its categorization and reproduce today’s fast pace and fluidity. Second, the article looks at how the show integrates and has been integrated into contemporary pop culture. Supernatural is known for pushing the boundaries, communicating with other cultural products, self-referencing and interacting with the audience, thus fostering an active interchange between the show, pop culture products, different media, and viewers. The article therefore understands Supernatural as both a cultural manifestation and a manifestation of culture, a product that impacts popular culture and is, in turn, impacted by it. It investigates how the present social, cultural and political context in America has influenced the creation of the series and its plot, and how the use of popular culture references, which pop up regularly throughout the show and create a sublayer of meaning the viewer must decode and interpret, has become a distinctive characteristic of the show and a key factor for its success and durability.
How is religion portrayed on prime time entertainment television and what effect does this have on our society? This book brings together the opinions of all the important factions involved in this important public policy debate, including religious figures (Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Freethinkers—liberal and conservative), academics, media critics and journalists, and representatives of the entertainment industry. The debate provides contrasting views on how much and what type of religion should be on entertainment television and what relationship this has with the health of our society. Many contributors also offer strategies for how to reform the present situation. This is an important work that delineates the debate for the layperson as well as researchers, scholars, and policymakers.
This examination and comprehensive assessment of apocalyptic film studies fifty films that illustrate the variety, range and different categories of the genre. Apocalyptic films are those that depict, on screen as part of the story, an event threatening the extinction of mankind. A brief overview identifies seven major categories of apocalyptic films: the religious or supernatural, celestial collision, solar or orbital disruption, nuclear war and radioactive fallout, germ warfare or pestilence, alien device or invasion, and scientific miscalculation. Alphabetically arranged entries rate the films and provide production information, an annotated cast listing, a synopsis of the film, a critique, and representative quotes.
Film scholars and those with a special interest in apocalyptic cinema will appreciate the overview and detailed analysis of the films. Appendices provide additional examples of apocalyptic movies excluded from the main text, a sampling of post-apocalyptic cinema which is distinct from the apocalyptic genre and examples of apocalyptic television. Illustrations are included.
The frontier myth has served as America's secular creation story. As a result, it surfaces widely in popular culture and political discourse. It also resonates in news coverage. This paper explores how the American press framed the Mexican Revolution as a mythical frontier narrative by examining depictions of revolutionary Francisco ''Pancho'' Villa. The news story that emerges bears close resemblance to the frontier thesis, as articulated by historian Frederick Jackson Turner. Le mythe de la frontiére a toujours servi de fond à l'histoire de la fondation de l'Amérique ; c'est pourquoi on le retrouve souvent dans la culture populaire et dans le discours politique. On en trouve également de nombreux échos dans la presse. Cet article se penche sur les façons dont la presse américaine a présenté la Révolution mexicaine comme un récit à caractére mythique, grâce à une analyse des portraits qu'on y faisait du révolutionnaire Francisco «Pancho» Villa. L'analyse qui en ressort a de nombreux points communs avec la thése de la frontiére telle que la présente l'historien Frederick Jackson Turner.
The idea that the United States is destined to spread its unique gifts of democracy and capitalism to other countries is dangerous for Americans and for the rest of the world, warns Godfrey Hodgson in this provocative book. Hodgson, a shrewd and highly respected British commentator, argues that America is not as exceptional as it would like to think; its blindness to its own history has bred a complacent nationalism and a disastrous foreign policy that has isolated and alienated it from the global community. Tracing the development of America's high self regard from the early days of the republic to the present era, Hodgson demonstrates how its exceptionalism has been systematically exaggerated and-in recent decades-corrupted. While there have been distinct and original elements in America's history and political philosophy, notes Hodgson, these have always been more heavily influenced by European thought and experience than Americans have been willing to acknowledge. A stimulating and timely assessment of how America's belief in its exceptionalism has led it astray, this book is mandatory reading for its citizens, admirers, and detractors.
This compelling and persuasive book is the first to explore all of the interrelated aspects of America's decline. Hard-hitting and provocative, yet measured and clearly written, The End of the American Century demonstrates the phases of social, economic, and international decline that mark the end of a period of world dominance that began with World War II. The costs of the war on terror and the Iraq War have exacerbated the already daunting problems of debt, poverty, inequality, and political and social decay. David S. Mason convincingly argues that the United States, like other great powers in the past, is experiencing the dilemma of "imperial overstretch"—bankrupting the home front in pursuit of costly and fruitless foreign ventures.
The author shows that elsewhere in the world, the United States is no longer admired as a model for democracy and economic development; indeed, it is often feared or resented. He compares the United States and its accomplishments with other industrialized democracies and potential rivals. The European Union is more stable in economic and social terms, and countries like India and China are more economically dynamic. These and other nations will soon eclipse the United States, signaling a fundamental transformation of the global scene. This transition will require huge adjustments for American citizens and political leaders alike. But in the end, Americans—and the world—will be better off with a less profligate, more interdependent United States.
More information is available on the author's website.
The brand of American exceptionalism invoked today tends to ignore the importance of religious freedom. Though political rhetoric often heralds the Massachusetts Puritans as the founders of American exceptionalism, Roger Williams’ colony of Rhode Island best exemplified exceptionalism's essence: “liberty of conscience” for every citizen, given of God, protected and promoted by the state. As a colonial outcast who befriended Native Americans and founded Providence, Williams’ legacy should be studied by those seeking to promote a pluralistic public square that is both civil and stable.
This essay explores the ways in which the electronic frontier builds upon the mythology of frontier expansion generally and the western American frontier in particular, including economic opportunity, danger/uncertainty, individualism, outlaw behavior, vigilantism, and nostalgia.
WASHINGTON — It might as well be the national anthem: America the Exceptional. From the days of the Revolution to the moon landing two centuries later, the idea that the United States is different from and better than anyplace else on Earth has rallied its citizens and propelled its aspirations . Eighty percent of Americans in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll say they believe the country has a unique character and unrivaled standing — a higher degree of national unanimity than on any current policy issue. Now that historic trope is being wielded as a modern political weapon. Republicans , including a string of prospective presidential contenders, have taken their objections to President Obama 's policies to a provocative and controversial level . Over White House objections, they' re accusing him of not embracing the concept of American exceptionalism, saying he is pursuing an agenda on health care, the economy and foreign affairs that is at odds with fundamentals that distinguish the United States. Obama "has clarified and personified secular socialization and a European view," says former House speaker Newt Gingrich , who is weighing a presidential bid in 2012. Obama, he says , made "disastrous" comments on the subject during his first trip overseas as president in an exchange that has become a cause celebre among conservatives .
Jason A. Edwards explores the various rhetorical choices and strategies employed by former President Bill Clinton to discuss foreign policy issues in a new, post-Cold War era. Edwards argues that each American president has situated himself within the same foreign policy paradigm, drawing upon the same set of ideas and utilizing the same basic vernacular to discuss foreign policy. He describes how former presidents-and President Clinton, in particular-made modifications to this paradigm, leaving a rhetorical signature that tells us as much about the nature of their presidency as it does about the international environment they faced.
With the end of the Cold War came the end of a relatively stable international order. This end sparked intense debates about the new direction of American foreign policy. As Bill Clinton took office, he developed a new lexicon of words in order to discuss America's changing role in the world and other major international issues of the time without being able to fall into Cold War-era rhetoric. By examining the nuances and unique contributions President Clinton made to American foreign policy rhetoric, Edwards shows how his distinct rhetorical signature will influence future administrations.
This article explores representations of the American West in computer and videogames from the late 1970s through 2006. The article reveals how several titles, including the early Boot Hill (1977), invoked classic nineteenth-century western motifs, employing the six-shooter, wagon train, and iron horse to sell late twentieth-century entertainment technology to a global audience. Such games allowed players, typically adolescent males, to recreate a version of history and to participate actively in the more violent aspects of the "Wild West." The arcade Western emerged as a subgenre within computer entertainment, offering a distinctive, interactive amalgam of popular frontier-based fictions, including the nineteenth-century dime novel, Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show, and the modern Hollywood western. Computer technology thus served established myths surrounding the "Wild West," even as New Western History was challenging their authenticity.
Aesthetic or literary approaches to television, this essay argues, provide an essential corrective to recent emphases on the ideological dimensions of modern media. Calling for an aesthetic anthropology that understands television shows both as manufactured artifacts and as fictional texts, the essay defines television as a contemporary American instance of consensus narrative, a cultural formation or institution in which society's central beliefs and values undergo continuous rehearsal, testing, and revision.
There have been numerous studies of the frontier myth as it operated in the early republic and throughout our history. As a result of this work, we know a lot about the frontier myth, its history, elements, and ideological functioning. We know less, however, about how that myth developed when its ideological elements met the empirical realities of western emigration. I argue that four specific cultural fictions—erasure, civilization, community, and democracy—are integral elements of the larger fiction of the American frontier myth. By understanding them through the vehicle of the Donner Party narratives, we can deepen our understanding of that myth and the ways in which it operates and resonates throughout the national culture and contributes to the development of American national identity.
Issues of immigration and assimilation have always troubled the national psyche, with the native-born and immigrants wondering what it means to be an American. Theodore Roosevelt attempted to shape those issues, attempts that still resonate today in the public consciousness.1 This essay examines the mythic themes of Roosevelt's discourse in his narrative history The Winning of the West to explain how he used the Frontier Myth to lionize the immigrant in American culture. Moreover, the essay illuminates how his discourse not only provided a primer to immigrants about the expectations of American culture, but also worked to lessen the anti-immigrationist impulse.
Despite an extensive and expanding body of scholarly studies, myths and myth-making remain a central element of the American West. After placing myth-making about the American West in a wider context, this article explores recent literature about the centrality of myths in envisioning
the region. For example, scholars have debunked three of the West's central myths, rugged individualism, American exceptionalism and frontier violence, but all remain alive and well in popular culture and political rhetoric. Among the specific topics analysed are mythologized people (George
Armstrong Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody), places (Monument Valley) and cultural production (political, commercial, visual and print). The article also probes the motives and varieties of myth-makers, past and present, and the ways in which women and Native American writers today challenge mythical
depictures in traditional western popular culture.
This article interrogates the shared public efforts of athletes, sports leagues, and media myth-makers to reshape America's relationship with sport as a contemporary myth system in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A rhetorical analysis of several articles printed directly after the attacks reveals that the periodicals' coverage bolstered sport's mythic function in significant ways. These findings point to the role mediated messages continue to play in the reinforcement of contemporary American myths and underscore the extent to which enthusiasts persist in seeking mythological explanation, social grounding, and a symbolic experience of the divine in the achievements of modern stars of sport.
The authors analyze the religious themes and portrayals in the television program Supernatural, aired on the CW television network since 2005. As fictional entertainment programming, Supernatural incorporates various religions and lore into its episodes, which feature its protagonists fighting monsters, demons, and the occasional evil human. Findings from a content analysis of 60 episodes from the first 3 seasons illustrate a religious hegemony that forwards Catholicism, in the form of weapons used to fight evil, such as holy water, and depictions of priests, as the main and most powerful opponent of evil. Non-Catholic, “other” religions, and their associated villainous characters, in contrast, serve as distractions for the protagonists, thus contributing even more to their marginal stature.
This essay argues that Kenneth Burke's concept of “literature as equip‐ment for living” is especially useful for media content criticism. An appropriate dramatistic method, the representative anecdote, is illustrated. Its application to selected fictional and nonfictional discourses of the Nineteen‐Fifties and late Seventies which exhibit public concern regarding automation, cloning, foreign affairs, and social regimentation is discussed. Paradigmatic expressions of the anecdote underlying media content is found in the film and book versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Expanding upon the Social Value Model of Rushing and Frentz, this essay argues that the fundamental values of the American Western myth exist in the paradoxical form of Individualism vs. Community. Four historical eras are discussed in terms of how the Western film rhetoric of each was patterned in response to threats to the myth. Early Westerns enacted a pattern of “dialectical emphasis” (of Community): classic Westerns, “dialectical reaffirmation “; sixties Westerns, “dialectical emphasis” (of Individualism). It is claimed that reaffirmation of the dialectical tension between the values best strengthens the archetype, and thus America's image of itself. In contrast, the current revival of Western rhetoric, as depicted in the political realm in the elections of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and in the popular culture realm in The Electric Horseman, Urban Cowboy.,and “Dallas,” enacts a pattern of dialectical pseudo‐synthesis, and thus is seriously subversive of the fundamental archetype.
This essay offers a narrative reading of the representation of bisexuality on One Tree Hill by examining the character Anna Tagaro. Grounding this reading in observations about bisexuality, media representation and
adolescent identity formation processes, the essay exposes Anna’s representation as both a viable coming out story for an adolescent audience and a systematic erasure of bisexuality as a valid social identity. The displacement of political activism with friend and ally
Peyton creates a representation that functions both as liberating and constraining simultaneously. Moreover, Anna’s inclusion
as the only Latina character in an all white, all heterosexual cast offers an intersectional representation of race and sexual
identity. This conflict between progress and constraint in the representation of youth identity choices offers scholars ample
data for future studies in teen television and sexuality.
Pleasures of Horror is a stimulating and insightful exploration of horror fictions-literary, cinematic and televisual-and the emotions they engender in their audiences. The text is divided into three sections. The first examines how horror is valued and devalued in different cultural fields; the second investigates the cultural politics of the contemporary horror film; while the final part considers horror fandom in relation to its embodied practices (film festivals), its "reading formations" (commercial fan magazines and fanzines) and the role of special effects. Pleasures of Horror combines a wide range of media and textual examples with highly detailed and closely focused exposition of theory. It is a fascinating and engaging look at responses to a hugely popular genre and an invaluable resource for students of media, cultural and film studies and fans of horror.
Kansas, specifically, as the Winchesters' hometown because of its location near Stull Cemetery, which he cited as one of the ''Gates of HellAsk Eric
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Kansas is the name of the classic rock group whose ''Carry on Wayward Son'' (on the 1976 album Leftoverture) serves as a recurring opening theme song for the series
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Reading Angel: The TV spin-off with a soul
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Guns don't kill, movies kill: The media's promotion of frontier violence
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Democratic dissent and the cultural fictions of antebellum America
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