One West, One Myth: Transborder Continuity in Western Art.

In American and Canadian literature, the notion of one West, two myths seems plausible. The large "W" Western-formula fiction in which violence resolves a conflict between good and evil-expresses distinctly American cultural values, the argument goes, constituting a Puritan morality play. And it is also possible to argue for subtle differences in the presentation of the American and Canadian Wests even in a grimly realistic, transnational literature like the prairie or fanning novel in which the heavy hand of environmental determinism would seem to impose sameness.