Simulated authenticity: storytelling and mythic space on the hyper-frontier in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Westworld.

Journal article

Lovell, J. and Hitchmough, S. 2020. Simulated authenticity: storytelling and mythic space on the hyper-frontier in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Westworld. Tourist Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797620937912
AuthorsLovell, J. and Hitchmough, S.
Abstract

This article explores how the mythic, nineteenth-century American frontier is authenticated by postmodern forms of storytelling. The study examines accounts of William Cody’s extensive 1902–1903 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West tours in the United Kingdom and the futuristic television series, HBO’s Westworld (2016–), which is set in an android-hosted theme park. Comparing the semiotics of the two examples indicates how over a century apart, the authentication of the myth involves repeating motifs of setting, action and character central to tourist fantasies. The research illustrates how some elements of the myth seem to remain fixed but are negotiable. It is suggested that both examples are versions of a ‘hyper-frontier’, a nostalgic yet progressive, intertextual retelling of the American West and its archetypal characters, characterised by advanced technology. The implications for tourism are that simulating the authenticity of the frontier myth creates doubts in its veracity paradoxically due to its lifelikeness.

KeywordsAmerican studies; Tourism; Authenticity; Hyperreality; Myth; Storytelling; Buffalo Bill; Frontier; Westworld; Wild West; Wilderness tourism
Year2020
JournalTourist Studies
PublisherSAGE
ISSN1468-7976
1741-3206
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797620937912
Official URLhttps://doi.org/10.1177/1468797620937912
Related URLhttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1468797620937912
Publication dates
Online16 Jul 2020
Print20 Jul 2020
Publication process dates
Accepted01 Oct 2018
Deposited30 Jul 2020
Accepted author manuscript
Output statusPublished
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