Changing Images of the West

Abstract

This article examines the changing images of the Canadian West from early exploration to the present through a study of the secondary literature. The approach is interdisciplinary; the writings of historians, historical geographers, literary and art critics are examined. The image of the West changed from that of a wilderness in the pre- 1850 era to an idyllic and expansionist region capable of becoming by the late nineteenth century a utopian society for those who lived there. By 1920 and certainly by the Depression decade a new "realistic" image emerged, a product of the harsh physical environment of the time. In the postwar era, historians, literary critics, artists and historical geographers attempted to escape the "environmental" approach by searching for an image of the West in the internal landscape of the mind.