The purpose of this study is to reexamine dramas of the American West as stories of endemic individual alienation rather than of the traditionally accepted narration of Euro-American nation building. As our country has come to embrace new notions of citizenship, diversity, and tolerance, the Western genre—for many years understood as mere entertainment designed to celebrate Anglo manhood—has made a surprising resurgence in popular fiction, television, and film in ways that challenge the gendered and racial overtones associated with it. By examining the Western as a genre that presents the rootlessness, plurality, and inhomogeneous nature of the national character this study traces an inclusive narrative that depicts a shared experience of America's disparate populations—the collective memory of having been, at some point in our shared history, alienated from the status quo.

I examine dramatic literature during three distinct moments of the twentieth century, focusing on Western dramas that reflect some aspect of the national experience unique to the era in which the play was originally produced. I conduct close readings of several play texts within the context of pop culture studies, comparing them with other contemporary public entertainments including periodicals, B-Western movies, and early recordings of blues, hillbilly, and folk music. By placing these plays within the context of other market-driven entertainments, I hope to illustrate how commercial Westerns actually came to erase the underrepresented groups that stage Westerns had often celebrated. Conversely, I hope to illustrate how these more commercial entertainments subtly retain the message of their more socially conscious theatrical counterparts and show how the theme of alienation remains present albeit subsumed for mainstream markets.