The Neglected West

No place has probably been more fantasized and imagined than the American West. No territory has probably been more essentialized and generally defined than the American West. No people have probably been more (mis)represented and stereotyped than the American Westerners. No "state of mind" has probably been more shared and acknowledged than that of the American West. The conception of the title of this volume, The Neglected West, originates from the assumption of the existence of a West, as described and imagined previously, but introduces the idea of the existence of other Wests, many Wests, different Wests, neglected Wests. The book has been conceived and designed as a compilation of heterogeneous academic works that attempt to fill some of the voids that the western myth has created. It provides a channel for the many and varied ways that the West has been experienced by individuals, retold by them, and eventually redefined through literature and culture in general. It aims to offer an open, dynamic vision and revision of the modes of expression that have been traditionally linked to the West and the "western" as a valid formula for its portrayal. The volume emphasizes other ways of experiencing the Movement West, its settling and the West itself, devoid of the traditionally accepted, normative, male, cowboy, white experience. Overall, these essays and their authors seek to convey an international, contemporary and revisionist vision/version of the West. One that proves that the cowboy was never alone and his voice was never the only voice.