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LIU Jie-xiu
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2014.04.004
Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, China
The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains (1902) has been considered as one of the masterpieces of American western novels for its successful depiction of cowboys and local customs, which earns Owen Wister the Father of Western fiction. The paper aims to reveal the relationship between The Virginian and its historical context by applying the doctrines of New Historicism: historicity of texts and textuality of history. By historicity of texts, it points out that the work is the emblem of disappearance of western frontier, and it symbolizes the union of the Wild West and the civilized east. By textuality of history, it detects the change of social class, the development of livestock industry and railway, and their influence on the work at the later part of 19th century.
The Virginian, new historicism, text, history
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