"The West is Everywhere: The Western as a Transcultural Genre"

The Western is the quintessential American genre the Hollywood movie industry thrived on. Its special aesthetics, narratives, and cinematic conventions forged a particular sense of national identity. However, in a global film market, movement and mobility took place not only on screen; ideas, topics, and artists also moved on. No longer tied to the American frontier, the neo-western has developed into an exciting transcultural cinematic mode. The lecture interrogates how the genre negotiates cultural difference and local context in several parts of the – not just Western – world.

Dr. Elfi Bettinger is an independent scholar, living in Berlin.