| The solitary hero is a familiar archetype in the history of literature. The American Western genre of literature and film faithfully follows this tradition: many of this genre's most recognizable characters also stand as quintessential representations of the archetype. At the same time, the accessibility of film allows audiences access to a broader range of narrative traditions: many Western films reinterpret the samurai narratives of Kurosawa, and the later Hong Kong action films of the Shaw brothers and Raymond Chow borrow heavily from the American Western. While the lone hero figures prominently in both of these familiar film traditions, close comparison of the Eastern hero to the Western reveals some differences in the underlying philosophical individualism on display. This project aims to examine the nature of those differences and to trace their possible historical roots. |
