This essay presents the conception, outline, and results of a cultural and literary studies graduate course held at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena and at the Calgary Stampede in 2013. Students of English and American Studies from Germany developed multimedia projects about “Western” culture, and the Stampede as a Canadian sample of “Westernness,” with a special interest in concepts of authenticity and spectacle. In the present contribution, we focus on the students’ response to the Stampede and on their projects, with topics ranging from animal rights to food culture, and cowboy dress codes to First Nations legacy.
AgnewJ.SmithJ. (Eds.). (2002). American space/American place: Geographies of the contemporary United States. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.
2.
AndersonB. R. O. G. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London, England: Verso.
3.
AokiE.DickinsonG.OttB. L. (2013). Memory and the West: Reflections on place, practice, and performance. Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies, 13, 3-5.
4.
BeneschK.SchmidtK. (Eds.). (2005). Space in America: Theory, history, culture. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Rodopi.
5.
BiggsJ. (2003). Teaching for quality learning at university. What the student does (2nd ed.). Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.
ColvileG. (1992). On Coyote or Canadian Otherness in Robert Kroetsch’s Badlands and George Bowering’s Caprice. Renaissance and Modern Studies, 35, 128-138.
8.
ForanM. (Ed.). (2008). Icon, brand, myth: The Calgary Stampede. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Athabasca University Press.
9.
GemündenG. (2001). Between Karl May and Karl Marx: The DEFA Indianerfilme (1965-1983). New German Critique, 82, 25-38.
KelmM.-E. (2009). Manly contests: Rodeo masculinities at the Calgary Stampede. Canadian Historical Review, 90, 711-751.
12.
KelmM.-E. (2011). A wilder West: Rodeo in Western Canada. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press.
13.
KnopfK. (2008). Mein Bruder Winnetou: Indianer-Repräsentation im Deutschen Film [“My Brother Winnetou: The Representation of Indians in German Film” authors’ translation]. Schnitt: Das Filmmagazin, 49, 18-19.
14.
KroetschR. (1989). The moment of discovery in America continues. In KroetschR. (Ed.), The lovely treachery of words (pp. 1-20). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press.
15.
LusinC. (2008). Projektmanagement [“Projekt management” authors’ translation]. In NünningV. (Ed.), Schlüsselkompetenzen. Qualifikationen in Studium und Beruf [“Key Competences For Students and Professionals” authors’ translation] (pp. 33-48). Stuttgart, Germany: Metzler.
16.
LutzH. (2002). Approaches: Essays in Native North American studies and literatures. Augsburg, Germany: Wißner.
17.
MayK. (1893). Winnetou, der rote Gentleman [“Winnetou, the red gentleman” authors’ translation] (3 vols.). Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany: Fehsenfeld.
18.
MayK. (1894). Der Schatz im Silbersee [“The treasure in the silver lake” authors’ translation]. Stuttgart, Germany: Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft.
19.
MayK. (1894/1895). Old Shurehand (2 vols.). Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany: Fehsenfeld.
20.
MayK. (1897). Der Oelprinz [“The Oilprince” authors’ translation]. Stuttgart, Germany: Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft.
21.
MellisA. (2003). Riding buffaloes and broncos: Rodeo and Native traditions in the Northern Great Plains. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
22.
PennyH. G. (2006). Elusive authenticity: The quest for the authentic Indian in German public culture. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 48, 798-819.
23.
ReadR. (2010). Eric Harvie: Without and within Robert Kroetsch’s Alibi. In FinkelA.CarterS.FortnaP. (Eds.), The West and beyond: New perspectives on an imagined region (pp. 375-397). Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Athabasca University Press.
24.
RobertsK. A. (2010). Sundance style. Dancing with cowboys in Aritha van Herk’s (New) West. Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d’études canadiennes, 44, 26-49.
25.
RosenthalC. (2011). New York and Toronto novels after postmodernism. Explorations of the urban. Rochester, NY: Camden House.
26.
SusemihlG. (2008). The imaginary Indian in German children’s nonfictional literature. In KnopfK. (Ed.), Aboriginal Canada revisited (pp. 122-157). Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: University of Ottawa Press.
27.
SusemihlG. (2013). Cultural world heritage and Indigenous empowerment. The sites of SGang Gwaay and Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump. Zeitschrift für Kanadastudien, 33, 51-87.
van HerkA. (2000). Waiting for the rodeo. In SproxtonB. (Ed.), Great stories from the prairies (pp. 227-240). Calgary, Alberta, Canada: Red Deer Press.
30.
van HerkA. (2001). Moustache mounties. In van HerkA. (Ed.), Mavericks: An incorrigible history of Alberta (pp. 140-158). Toronto, Ontario: Penguin Canada.
31.
van HerkA. (2010). A lot of beautiful things are dangerous: Caprice dreams a Western. In BoweringG. (Ed.), Caprice (pp. v-xi). Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: New Star Books.
32.
WarrenL. S. (2003). Cody’s last stand. Masculine anxiety, the Custer myth, and the frontier of domesticity in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Western Historical Quarterly, 34, 49-69.
33.
WarrenL. S. (2006). Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show. London, England: Vintage.
34.
WendlandtH. (Producer), & ReinlH. (Director). (1992). Winnetou (VHS) (Parts 1-3). München, Germany: TaurusVideo. (Original work published 1963)
35.
WendlandtH. (Producer), & ReinlH. (Director). (2005). Der Schatz im Silbersee [“The treasure in the silver lake” authors’ translation] (DVD). München, Germany: Universum Film GmbH. (Original work published 1962)
36.
WiebeR. (2000). Where’s the voice coming from? In SproxtonB. (Ed.), Great stories from the prairies (pp. 168-178). Calgary, Alberta, Canada: Red Deer Press.
