The Sundance Kid: Simulacrum of a Visit. (February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: van Herk, Aritha
• Other Names: Rusted Brian guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Cultural studies, critical methodologies. Volume 16:Number 1(2016:Feb.)
• Page Start: 68
• Page End: 74
• Publication Date: 2016-02
• Subjects: outlaws -- images of the west -- the Sundance Kid -- film and history; Culture -- Research -- Periodicals; Popular culture -- Research -- Periodicals; 306.05
• DOI: 10.1177/1532708615615607
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1532-7086

Abstract

The Canadian west differed from the American west in its depiction and its disposition. This is most strongly evident in outlaw history and mythology. This article is an intertextual and ficto-critical speculation on the bandit known as the Sundance Kid. His representation in the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is read in counterpoint to his brief sojourn in southern Alberta, Canada, in the early 1890s, as Harry Longabaugh, horse breaker. His historical trace, as evidenced by census documents and vernacular histories, is juxtaposed with his folkloric depiction, and unfolded through the eyes of a viewer both skeptical and entranced by the enactment of the outlaw's vanishing.