| Law and literature scholars often use new historical methods to produce legal critiques within
literary works. As a starting point, this thesis approaches the question of how conceptions of
sovereignty are influenced by changes in US jurisdiction and borderland developments—in other
words, frontiers. From the borderlands of the early Republic in The Last of the Mohicans, the
unique perspective of the Californios who witnesses the mass migration of pioneers in The
Squatter and the Don, to the modern day frontier of tribal reservations in The Round House, this
thesis explores the unique ways that frontiers regulate large-scale discourses of law and political
sovereignty. Stories offer a unique opportunity to critique these legal issues, and within
especially the American mythology of the frontier is the cowboy. The social role of this character
represents the racially charged issues embedded in US history that are aberrant and worthy of
scrutiny, but this same character also represents ideals that are ostensibly timeless, alluring, and
worth pursuing, too.
Key Words: law, jurisdiction, sovereignty, westerns, frontiers, borderlands, cowboy,
interdisciplinary |